- 7 Oct 2022
Wythenshawe Park Cycle Hub
Wythenshawe Park, located in South Manchester is set in over 10o hectares of open parkland and dates back to the 13th century. The park benefits from historic and ornamental woodlands, herbaceous borders, formal bedding, open grassland and wildflower meadows.
Manchester City Council appointed Urban Green to undertake a Preliminary Arboricultural Assessment (PAA) to gather the required data to prepare a tree report and constraints plan, before progressing to an Arboricultural Impact Assessment (AIA). The report detailed the impact of the proposed scheme of a new cycle hub on the trees within the park. It was found most of the trees could be retained with some trees requiring pruning to accommodate the scheme. The new space, located around the existing athletics track area of the park, includes a pump track, a learn to ride area, mountain bike skills zone, woodland trails, and family trail. Making it a perfect zone for new and seasoned cyclists to enjoy.
A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) was also undertaken to identify habitats on site and any ecology recommendations/mitigation measures, including vegetation removals outside of the breeding bird season as well as precautionary working methods during the construction phase for common amphibians, hedgehog, and badgers.
Throughout the 5-month construction phase, arboricultural and ecology site supervision was undertaken weekly and fortnightly respectively with the local authority and the contractor Equans, along with monthly progress meetings.
Proposed new cycle hub Credit: EQUANS
The cycle hub was funded by Manchester City Council and Sports England’s Places 2 Ride who invested £1.55 million in the park, in conjunction with British Cycling.
Construction was completed in July 2022 and was officially opened on 24 September 2022.