{"id":575744,"date":"2025-11-17T07:51:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/575744\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T07:51:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:51:21","slug":"i-have-a-dream-to-turn-east-manchester-into-a-sprawling-eden-but-some-people-are-furious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/575744\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I have a dream to turn east Manchester into a sprawling Eden, but some people are furious’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In Manchester, quite often, land is getting used up. In this case, what we want to try and do is do the right thing and protect it.”\"AaronAaron Darke(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

When Aaron Darke looks over his corner of Tameside, he dreams of a sprawling Eden. One populated by beavers, moose and exotic wildlife.<\/p>\n

Sat in the corridor between Greater Manchester and the Peak District, the 200-acre is currently home to a couple of barns he describes as \u2018dilapidated\u2019.<\/p>\n

Six years ago, the distillery owner bought a farm in Hyde which is situated in the shadow of the picturesque Werneth Low Country Park.<\/p>\n

.He tells the Manchester Evening News he moved his family in and set about renovating the land several years ago.<\/p>\n

However, some do not share his vision. And Aaron fears a proposal for ten homes built on the land is what stands in the way of his dream for a 130-acre nature reserve.<\/p>\n

Despite his best efforts, Aaron says numerous plans for the area were not viable.<\/p>\n

Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron says he has tried everything to make the site work (Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

He adds that his final option was to repurpose the barns and turn them into family homes that would fund the development of the nature reserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a habitat plan that we\u2019ve been trying to implement for a number of years now.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you can imagine these things take funding. We\u2019ve got some buildings on the farm that we\u2019ve been trying to get something down with for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe final stage is turning them into what is much needed accommodation. These are all existing buildings by the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do this habitat without getting something like this across the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron says he has been caught in a “caught in a political struggle”(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Aaron, after submitting a proposal to convert the barns at Low End Farm into homes under Class Q permitted development rights, the objections came.<\/p>\n

Spearheaded by the Hyde Werneth Conservative party<\/a>, local councillors have highlighted the amount of structural work that will need to be undertaken in their objections to his plan.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the site\u2019s Green Belt status, they have highlighted safety concerns about the access to the land and the wellbeing of wildlife during development.<\/p>\n

Cllr Phil Chadwick told the M.E.N: \u201cI\u2019ve spoken with Mr Darke before and found him to be courteous and sincere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand his motivations and appreciate his interest in the land. That said, my position remains firm: greenbelt land should not be encroached upon or built on, regardless of intent. \u201cThe current application raises serious planning concerns, such as structural works that appear to exceed Class Q limits, lack of a waste strategy, confirmed bat activity, and contaminated land risks flagged by the council\u2019s own Environmental Protection Unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese can set a dangerous precedent, and concerns around public safety. \u201cI\u2019ve submitted a formal objection and encouraged residents to do the same. My role is to scrutinise applications that stretch policy and support residents who want their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron says that the converted barns would be used to fund the nature reserve (Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A dispute that has been years in the making, Aaron also feels like he has been painted out to be a faceless developer looking to blight the rolling hills of Werneth Low with more homes.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the topic of homes has become a contentious issue in Hyde.<\/p>\n

In 2023 councillors approved plans to build more than 2,000 homes in the Hyde<\/a> green belt despite thousands of objections from campaigners.<\/p>\n

Aaron feels like the reception to his project has been soured by this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that there\u2019 are a number of people out there who don\u2019t like houses.\u201d he said. \u201cI do believe that we are being caught in a political struggle.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a housing estate going up not too far from us and I think people are very upset about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese buildings that are here already, these are conversions, not new builds. I think a lot of people are being misled down a path to believe that we\u2019re sly, underhanded developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take around a minimum of five years once we actually start implementing the habitat. We\u2019ve got to control invasive species, like Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith beavers, those sorts of issues become compounded. If you put a beaver with Japanese knotweed it makes the knotweed even worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to get moose if I can do. We would never be a big enough site of a continuous eco system, the Idea is that we become a natural green corridor that will eventually lead to the peak district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron is the founder of Zymurgorium, a Salford-based distillery company which saw \u2018overnight success\u2019 almost ten years ago. He set up the company shortly after leaving university in 2012.<\/p>\n

The idea came to him while he was studying microbiology and began experimenting with brewing alcohol in the shed of his family home in Northern Moor.<\/p>\n

Some years later, his company exploded. A glowing review of his playful flavoured gins from LadBible saw him achieve sales approaching 60,000 bottles in 2017.<\/p>\n

However, Aaron says that thanks to the pandemic, the alcohol business isn\u2019t as lucrative as it once was and sees the nature reserve as a return to his one true passion.<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron is the founder of Zymurgorium(Image: Alex Hibbert)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe distillery company was more of a means to an end really.\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did it because I was good at it. As a family we\u2019ve won green awards, always had allotments, I\u2019ve always had a life between country and city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought this place about six years ago. We wanted to stay close to Manchester and protect somewhere if we could do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis site seemed like it was going to be a natural target for unscrupulous developers. We bought it with the vision of being able to do things like heritage farming techniques and wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, my family, I\u2019ve got my kids here with me. But my mum, dad and brother are all involved. It\u2019s all a family business essentially.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sort of want to build an Eden really, for the animals.<\/p>\n

“In Manchester, quite often, land is getting used up. In this case, what we want to try and do is do the right thing and protect it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also make it sustainable both economically and ecologically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not natural developers. This is how we\u2019re being painted to the rest of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“In Manchester, quite often, land is getting used up. In this case, what we want to try and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,527,393,4884,10585,2465,1290,1288,1026,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-575744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-conservative-party","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-hyde-and-longdendale","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-salford","15":"tag-stockport","16":"tag-tameside","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115563953508317395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}