A major Metrolink interchange could be built in Collyhurst as part of plans to expand the city centre northwards.

Developers say a ‘Cornbrook-style’ station at Sandhills – an inner city park off Eggington Street – is on the cards as part of a £1bn regeneration dubbed the Northern Gateway.

The large-scale programme to build eight new neighbourhoods covers 390 acres stretching from NOMA and New Cross, through the Irk Valley to Collyhurst.

A joint venture between Manchester council and property developer Far East Consortium (FEC), plans include a new transport interchange at the heart of the site in Sandhills.

As Metrolink’s Bury and Rochdale lines already pass the site, the setting is ripe for a tram stop as part of a ‘new village centre’.

It would be the north Manchester equivalent of Cornbrook, the interchange on the Manchester-Trafford border.

The scheme was set out by Tom Fenton, FEC project director, at MIPM, a property convention in Cannes.

Speaking exclusively to the M.E.N, he said: “It is our aspiration to add a Metrolink stop in Collyhurst but it needs to happen in incremental stages.

“The area is actually well served by other forms of transport so at first it will be driven by buses and other forms of transport.

“However, in the long-term there will be a tipping point and a viable business case for including a Cornbrook-style interchange in the long-run.”

The overall development includes plans for 15,000 homes, many affordable.

Richard Leese, leader of Manchester council, said: “This is basically a series of neighbourhoods including Sandhills, all linked by a river park based on the Irk Valley.

“There is clearly potential for a Metrolink stop at that location. With 15,000 affordable homes in the plan, transport infrastructure will be a key part of it.

“The location of a transport interchange has not been decided yet as there is a really important process of involving existing residents to decide what they want to happen.”

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Mr Leese said he expected existing residents and businesses to remain, joined by new communities moving into the ‘huge swathes’ of empty land.

Coun Roger Jones, a member of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, said the new interchange had been in the pipeline for some time. But he pointed out that there were ‘competing demands’ for new tram stops across Greater Manchester, adding: “Connections are needed in all parts of the conurbation – you’ve got to bear in mind that there are three districts without Metrolink – Bolton, Wigan and Stockport.”

A formal public consultation on the Northern Gateway masterplan will take place later this year, after which a Strategic Regeneration Framework will be adopted.

Plans for the 10-year project could take several years to come to fruition and a full public consultation is expected in June.

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