Inaccurate reporting has lead to confusion in regards to Manchester City Council’s (MCC) attitude towards shared-space schemes.

“There has been a lot of misquoting on this,” explained Tim Johns, senior urban designer at MCC. “We are opposed to shared-surfaces without a kerbside delineator,” he said when in conversation with GPN.

A local authority journal had mistakenly reported that: “Shared-surface streets and home zones have been banned from new housing developments in Manchester.” Thus giving the impression that only traditional streets would be considered and implying a pejorative attitude towards shared-space in Manchester.

Johns explained why MCC has prescribed ‘pedestrian priority streets’ in its Streetscape Manual: “After extensive research and consultation we discovered that some pedestrians – particularly the elderly and the young – feel insecure on a street that has no defined space for them.”

Thus the standard kerb height of 80mm will be included in new housing developments within Manchester.

The new manual is only going to be enforced for new residential streets although it is likely that it will be updated to include city-centre streets in the future.

As reported in GPN, Ashford in Kent has recently adopted a shared-space scheme to mixed reaction. Angry residents talk of near misses and confusion while the Kent County Council and the Kent Constabulary point to zero accidents and a much-reduced average vehicle speed.

Whatever the future for shared space in the UK, it is clear that Manchester has NOT ruled it out.