Sat 9th February: Over a hundred people who live around Alexandra Park attended something between a protest and wake today.  Organised by the Save Alexandra Park Trees group, the peaceful gathering bore witness to the handiwork of the chainsaws sent by Manchester Town Hall after a “consultation” that many felt was a farce.

Local MP Gerald Kauffman gave a short interview to waiting cameras at the north-west entrance. Local councillors were conspicuously absent.  The group moved onto the Park.  After hearing a brief speech (see disclaimer) where the avenue of sycamores used to be, the group moved down to the lake for further explanations what will be done in the coming years.

Many people expressed outrage at the loss of trees and shrubbery. Others were particularly angry about the lack of meaningful consultation with residents by the City Council.

A facebook statement written on Friday by one person who attended the protest sums up feeling –

 The devastation is still in progress. But we need to do something. 5 million pounds spent in a park that we’ve grown up with, that is so dear to us – we can’t allow this to be a bad thing. We have to turn this around. This must be a turning point in the history of our city. Consultation on the transformation of our public spaces should never look like this again. The city council is caretaker for our public spaces but they are ours. It is our park. It is our heritage. Its time for some humility and recognition that this is not the way to operate. Start the healing process now MCC. Listen, apologise and stop felling trees, you do not have a mandate.

The Save Alexandra Park Trees group is asking concerned residents to take a series of actions. Here are some of them:

REMEMBER THIS WHEN VOTING FOR MPS & COUNCILLORS IN THE FUTURE!
Sign the petition & share it (link on SAPT site below)
Involve family friends, neighbours, schools, church and your community
Make a formal complaint to Mcr City Council, (see sample letters on SAPT)
Make a formal complaint to the Heritage Lottery Fund (see sample letters)
Write complaint letters to MPs & local councillors requesting immediate action
Attend Councillors Surgery to discuss the issue & request action
Share Save Alexandra Park’s Trees blog
Contact the media with a personal story
Write comments on news articles
Contact MCC Officers: Eddie Flanagan e.flanagan@manchester.gov.uk; Eamonn O’Rourke e.o’rourke@manchester.gov.uk; Richard Sharland r.sharland@manchester.gov.uk
Contact Richard Leese, Leader of the Council: r.leese@manchester.gov.uk, And Executive Member for the Environment cllr.n.murphy@manchester.gov.uk
Find evidence of bird nesting behaviour
Remember this when voting for MPs and Councillors in the future!

If you want to read what the Council has to say for itself, see their statements in this post on the Guardian Northerner blog, by MCFly co-editor Arwa Aburawa.

Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The organisers of the protest had invited Manchester Climate Monthly to give a speech. I took them up on the offer. You can, if you are totally devoid of toe nails to clip or X-factor re-runs to watch, read it here.

Disclaimer the second:  I really should have gotten more vox pops from folks. And made this into a proper news story. My bad.  Will try to do better in future.