{"id":813242,"date":"2026-03-09T00:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/813242\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T00:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:04:23","slug":"the-monumental-mistake-right-under-manchesters-feet-for-25-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/813242\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘monumental mistake’ right under Manchester’s feet for 25 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey\u2019ve been monumental council mistakes that damaged Piccadilly Gardens,\u201d Pat Karney, the veteran Labour<\/a> councillor, explained as he surveyed the controversial square this week.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s seen it all in Manchester. First elected in 1979, he was instrumental in organising the first Pride in the 1980s, rebuilding town after the 1996 IRA Bomb and encouraging Mancs to come together after the 2017 Arena attack.<\/p>\n

One debate has persisted for decades across Coun Karney\u2019s tenure as city centre spokesperson \u2013 Piccadilly Gardens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Its 2002 Commonwealth Games redesign took it from a sunken flower garden to a Japanese minimalist concrete plaza.<\/p>\n

That revamp is controversial to this day. The area\u2019s dreary appearance isn\u2019t helped by entrenched social problems and crime.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Council leader Bev Craig and city centre spokesperson Pat Karney(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

But for Coun Karney, the \u2018monumental mistake\u2019 isn\u2019t the ongoing presence of crime and anti-social behaviour, which are being tackled by the council and police.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something that\u2019s right beneath Manchester\u2019s feet. Descending down a set of hidden steps at the Market Street<\/a> end of the grass into what was once a Victorian toilet there is a hidden world of wires, water pumps and even an emergency shower, to keep the Piccadilly Gardens fountain running.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Coun Karney (left) and Coun Craig (right) stand next to the water pumps underneath Piccadilly Gardens(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

It all has to go, because \u2018Manchester is done with fountains\u2019, council leader Bev Craig said on Wednesday (March 4), as the Local Democracy Reporting Service was granted exclusive behind the scenes access.<\/p>\n

The mistake wasn\u2019t installing a complicated fountain based on \u2018pretty pictures\u2019 a quarter of a century ago, according to Coun Karney. It was not getting rid of it sooner after the fountain firm went bust six months after the new Piccadilly Gardens opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see the scale and complexity of the fountain underground you will see why we have had problems from its early days,\u201d he said. \u201cThe company that built it collapsed six months after it was built and so started years of constant repairs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The emergency shower installed in the old Victorian toilet block which is now the Piccadilly Gardens plant room(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Berlin Wall and this flawed fountain should have been removed years ago. They have been monumental council mistakes that damaged Piccadilly Gardens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders are pledging a massive overhaul of the space, with the promise of flowers returning. It starts on Monday (March 9) when much of the square is fenced off \u2014 some grass and the play area will be accessible \u2014 and the \u2018rip out\u2019 job begins.<\/p>\n

Coun Craig added: \u201cIn addressing what\u2019s going on at the surface we have a lot of underground complications. That\u2019s probably why we reached the point thinking we had spent enough making fountains work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The vision for Piccadilly Gardens’ revamp, opening in summer 2027(Image: Manchester City Council)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not look like much is happening, but behind the scenes there will be people assessing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improving Piccadilly Gardens is a topic that\u2019s close to Coun Craig\u2019s heart, as she led her first ever political campaign to topple the hated \u2018Berlin Wall\u2019 which eventually came down shortly after she became council leader in December 2021.<\/p>\n

So why wait three more years to get on with improving the Gardens if she thought it wasn\u2019t up to scratch?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

‘It might not look like much is happening, but behind the scenes…’<\/p>\n

\u201cWe waited because of money and multi-agency commitment,\u201d Coun Craig said. \u201cCash coming in was limited. The cost of borrowing after Liz Truss\u2019 mini-budget was too expensive. We waited to get the bulk of the spend of the town hall out of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have spent a billion pounds on Piccadilly Gardens, but if we did not have the backing of the police and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) for the buses, we would be whistling into the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The entrance to the unseen chamber<\/p>\n

TfGM now has government cash to \u2018do up the bus station\u2019 while police can fund \u2018extra cops\u2019 for a permanent presence in the area, prompting new designs to be unveiled last October.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Underneath the fountain at Piccadilly Gardens <\/p>\n

On the eve of the revamp, council officers say it will re-open in summer 2027. Piccadilly Gardens will \u2018be a space Mancunians are proud of once again\u2019 after 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey\u2019ve been monumental council mistakes that damaged Piccadilly Gardens,\u201d Pat Karney, the veteran Labour councillor, explained as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,8086,8828,29712,16429,285,16,15],"class_list":["post-813242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city-centre","tag-manchester-council","tag-manchester-development","tag-piccadilly-gardens","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116196296200995684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813242","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=813242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}