Save Ryebank Fields: Our campaigns to safeguard this precious wildlife area

Current campaign: I Am Greenfield - View the collaborative handmade banner created to raise awareness of the importance of Ryebank Fields.

STOP PRESS: The planning application has been submitted to Manchester Council to build on the fields. Over 550 new homes are being built or planned for Chorlton and even more in the surrounding areas. See this on our home-building map for Chorlton and areas surrounding Ryebank Fields.  Precious greenfield space in urban areas should not be destroyed when there is a surplus of brownfield to build on! Please check out the information on the Save Ryebank Fields website and make your objection online or by email before 2 April 2025. www.saveryebankfields.co.uk/object-now
 

Ryebank Fields is a beautiful, safe, wild space in a built-up suburban area threatened by destruction.

Sadly, urban green space is in constant decline in England. Even worse, a Sheffield University study classed Manchester among the ten least green cities in the UK. It is well known that access to green space, including wild areas, is crucial to our physical and mental well-being. It also provides a habitat for important wildlife, reduces air pollution, protects against floods, and lessens climate change.
 

Why are Ryebank Fields important?
Ryebank Fields has a fascinating history that includes the ancient Nico Ditch, pollution-cleaning trees such as the Manchester Poplar, a rare Aspen Grove, a field of millennial oaks and much insect and mammal life, including protected species like bats.

Manchester Metropolitan University, who were given the fields by Manchester Council for use as student playing fields in the 1970s, abandoned them in the early 1990s for other facilities. Rewilding itself, the space is loved and cared for as an outdoor community centre by local people who walk and play there together.
 

However MMU now want to cash in by selling the land to housing developers for a considerable but undisclosed sum. Although Manchester Council do not own the fields, they appear supportive in their approval of the 2019 Development Framework submitted by MMU. Pending planning permission, a sale has been agreed to a partnership of Step Places and Southway Housing.
 

Read more about the importance of Ryebank Fields in this short article in Open Up magazine, join the campaign run by the Friends of Ryebank Fields whose website is full of useful information. The prospective buyers and MMU have an information website where you can register for updates. 
 

​​What about the need for housing?

The need for additional housing across the UK is being well met here in Chorlton and surrounding areas with considerable ongoing and planned housing developments, including around 50 apartments on the site of the old Chorlton Baths, 200 apartments and houses on the Chorlton Precinct site and 40 apartments on Albany Road to mention just a few. We are compiling and mapping a list of building projects in Chorlton and near Ryebank Fields as well to give an idea of the scale of new housing. This is a work in progress that may contain errors, do let us know if you know more. Building on these brownfield sites is welcomed whilst protecting greenfield spaces like Ryebank Fields is crucial in this built-up, polluted suburb. Brownfield first, before destroying greenfield!

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What can you do?

• Join the Chorlton Craftivist Facebook group for sharing and planning future actions.

• Go on our mailing list to be notified when planning application is submitted. We will have a special postcard campaign.

• Check out our current piece of craftivism, the I Am Greenfield banner, and invite everyone you know to view it and walk round Ryebank Fields.

• Join the Friends of Ryebank Fields mailing list and social media to find out actions to take when the planning application is submitted.

• Register for updates from the would-be developers and attend their future community consultation event. Please remember to make a copy of any form you complete on paper or online to ensure your feedback isn’t lost—www.ryebankchorlton.com

• Use our pack to create a piece of Ryebank Fields craftivism

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If you have a few minutes to read this very accessible report Biodiversity Strategy 2022-2030: The City of Manchester’ s Nature Recovery.  You will see the public are exhorted to take action "To help nature recover in Manchester we will need more people to take greater action to protect it."
We are here to do just this, together, using our craftivist approach - do join in!​

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