This massive scheme links local institutional masterplans to transform the Oxford Road Corridor (ORC) into a more characterful and physically agreeable cultural and mixed-use commercial hot-spot. The ORC’s so-called ‘Cultural Axis’ of universities, colleges, and hospital may be re-energised by the decisive introduction of a Bus Rapid Transport System. This will narrow the increasingly traffic-congested Oxford Road, allowing wider pavements to boost retail presence.

 

A new creative media zone, housing, and community business development, will produce “threshold regeneration” on the eastern edge of the ORC. The High Street will be revitalised, and a new science park will also be created. This wholesale re-casting of the ORC is designed to make Manchester the knowledge capital of the North, generating at least 4,000 new jobs in the area over the next decade. Longer term, the masterplan will allow the local working population to rise from 36,000 to 57,000.