Trafford Local Plan: Core Strategy (TLPCS) (figs.1,2, Appendix E), adopted by Trafford Council in 2012 and setting out their vision up to 2026, identifies Pomona Island as one of five ‘Strategic Locations’, for change within the borough.
Figs.1,2 – Trafford Park Local Plan: Core Strategy
The map to the right shows how Trafford Council breaks down the Borough into ‘locally distinctive’ areas. Pomona lies within Old Trafford, and is itself identified as a Strategic Location.
TLPCS’s successor is currently undergoing consultation and will be adopted in 2021. There seems a clear opportunity for Laboratory of Productive Ecologies to push the Borough in a more radical direction socially and environmentally by being specifically written into this new plan and showing how it pushes beyond the objectives set out in the 2012 TLPCS.
In relation to the current document, the project is particularly useful in advancing Strategic Objectives S05 and S07 – to “provide a green environment” and to “secure sustainable development” respectively. The novel construction process being implemented, with its use of site-grown bamboo and cement-free concrete will be a flagship example of Trafford’s commitment to promoting “the principles of sustainable construction and the use of new technologies to combat and adapt to climate change”, as cited in S07.
Focusing in on Old Trafford, a great deal is also contributed towards a number of the Place Objectives as well. It is important that this be made explicit in the new Core Strategy, citing how it will “maximise the re-use or redevelopment of unused, under used or derelict land (OTO2), “improve the quality of the environment, including green and open spaces” (OTO5), “protect, enhance and improve biodiversity and access to green spaces” (OTO15), and “maximise opportunities for green roofs and tree planting” (OTO24)
The site also sits within the Trafford Park Business Neighbourhood Area (TPBNA) (fig.3, Appendix F), a neighbourhood plan which was approved in 2013.
Fig.3 – Trafford Park Business Neighbourhood Area
This map shows the vastness of the TPBNA, and how out on a limb and barely connected the project site is to the rest of it, over to the east.
The Laboratory of Productive Ecologies will create a thriving food industry on the site, alongside other secondary programme which provides space for local independent businesses, and will therefore be its own microcosmic celebration of the diversity of business that is acknowledged as being within the TPBNA. As neighbourhood plans are non-statutory, and as Pomona Island is clearly out on a limb in this area, it will follow its own clear community-oriented and local business goals, whilst aiming to inspire greater community focus within the rest of the TPBNA.
Presently, Peel Group have approval to develop the whole of the site, with the majority of it as residential, a small hotel/leisure zone, and a smaller still, tucked away area of open space (figs.4-6).
Figs.4,5 – Peel Group masterplan for the whole site.
Neither the masterlplan nor planning applications have greater detail than this at this stage, but the lack of open space is clearly shown.
Fig.6 – planning application plan for the Peel Group ‘Manchester Waters’ development phase currently underway
This sits to the south -west of the part of the site which Laboratory of Productive Ecologies is to occupy.
The very different future envisioned for the site in this project is a direct reaction against this, as the Peel Group project seems at odds with the key Strategic Objectives and Place Objectives identified above.
In terms of use classes (Appendix G), the varied food-selling programme falls into classes A1 and A3. However, as the programme underneath the cast forms is varied and designed to freely adapt and change in response to the communities needs and desires, and as the rest of the site is of an agricultural nature, as a whole the site falls best within the “sui generis” class, meaning “of its own kind”.
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