I have just received the news that Manchester City Council will not allow houses to be built in Marie Louise gardens after all - residents and park lovers have lobbied for over eight months to ensure that the green spaces of this park are not lost for ever.  It’s a really special place - if you get time to visit it - I have been there many times over the years - the best was when assessing play workers for their NVQs with a group of children for a Teddy Bear’s picnic!  http://www.westdidsbury.org.uk/news/home.ikml

 Previous posting on my Blog Site for 8th February (www.anngarner.net) about the development:

“I am in West Didsbury Residents Association. We are opposing development plans in a small park on Palatine Rd, Manchester, called Marie Louise Gardens. The park lodge was sold under a rather dubious ‘right to buy’ to a parks superintendent and it has now been bought by a night club promoter who is going to vastly extend it. He has quietly negotiated boundary changes to his property with Manchester Leisure and the purchase of a further 400 sq metres of park land on which he plans to build a showy 18 room villa with balconies overlooking the park. He will be giving an undisclosed 6 figure sum of money to Manchester Leisure to fund “improvements” to the park as payment for the additional land. All this was negotiated behind closed doors and only came out in the plans.The two developments will dominate the small and tranquil park in a way which was never intended when it was designed. The park will effectively become the back garden for the developments. The plans can be viewed on www.manchester.gov.org.uk /planning/public
access. Plan nos -081609/FH/2006/S2″

Manchester City’s Labour Council should have thrown plans to build in this park and loose green space months ago - they should be ashamed of themselves!