At the Greater Manchester Combined Authority meeting on Friday 25 September it was confirmed CyanLines is to receive £2.5m towards improving the walking and wheeling route CL5 to the Etihad Stadium and Co-op Live Arena from the City Centre.

The funding, which comes from Greater Manchester’s Good Growth Fund, will enable CyanLines to make a series of interventions to improve accessibility along the route including a new ramp from the Ashton Canal to Joe Mercer Way, barrier removal, resurfacing, lighting and wayfinding.

Mayor of Greater Manchester and co-chair of CyanLines Bev Craig said: “We are on a mission to connect 100 miles of nature across Greater Manchester. With funding from Greater Manchester’s Good Growth Fund, we are helping ensure this vision becomes a reality – enabling routes to reach more trees, wildlife and public spaces, creating a greener, healthier and better-connected city region that everyone can access.”

Councillor Garry Bridges, leader of Manchester City Council, said: “Throughout our city we are seeing new and innovative ways to bring nature closure to our residents, improve people’s wellbeing and make it easier for people to travel more sustainably. This latest round of funding is yet another step towards creating a truly linked up Manchester and will be a welcome arrival for the thriving neighbourhoods of east Manchester.”

Steve Connor, programme director, CyanLines said: “The award of this funding from Greater Manchester’s Good Growth Fund for CyanLines CL5 is hugely important as it means we can move forward with the first phase of improvement works needed so many more people can enjoy the route.

“It is our intention to lever in additional funding to bring more nature into the CL5 route, to include elements to manage rainwater, reduce flood risk and create cool zones to help to shade users from extreme heat.”

Plans for the 3.7 mile (6 km) route were revealed at the CyanLines first anniversary celebration event on Tuesday 8 September. CyanLines and its partners Manchester City Football Club, Manchester City Council, Co-op Live and the Canal & River Trust have co-designed the route with community groups, young people and students from the Norman Foster Institute for Sustainable Cities through a series of design workshops and walks.

The plans for route CL5 include:

• New play parks for children.
• Spots for grown-ups to rest.
• Extensive tree planting and the addition of rain gardens, wildflower meadows and green walls to encourage wildlife and enhance biodiversity.
• Access to the Etihad and Co-op Live Arena (Joe Mercer Way) from the Ashton Canal will be made significantly easier through the installation of a wheelchair friendly alternative.
• Physical barriers along the route will be removed to improve access for everyone.
• Lighting, surfacing and wayfinding along the whole route will be completely overhauled.

Pete Bradshaw, director of sustainability, Manchester City Football Club said: “The plans for the CyanLines route add a new layer of nature rich, innovative and imaginative active travel and community experiences for fans, visitors and those living and working in the neighbourhood. Improving local ecology, biodiversity gain and creating environmental uplifts that have a positive impact across the community, supporting improved air quality and wellbeing.

“This builds on over a decade of environmental improvements the club has made in east Manchester, returning former industrial lands to green and blue spaces and through its sustainability agenda (Game Plan), the biodiversity programme’ Mancgroves,’ continues to expand and provide new wetlands, wildflower and wild grass meadows and rain gardens and wetlands that help prevent local flooding – all engaging our schools, communities.”

The Etihad Stadium recently expanded capacity to just over 60,000 with the opening of its new Pep Guardiola stand. It’s set to expand further with the upcoming Medlock Square which will feature a covered fan park for around 6,000 people meaning matchdays and tournament fixtures will routinely draw tens of thousands of visitors to the campus in concentrated time windows. The Co-op Live Arena is projected to host around seven million visits per year, and Medlock Square’s new offerings – including the 600-capacity Mamma Mia: The Party venue, a 3,000-capacity event space, a major new hotel, and series of cuisine offerings – all will further intensify footfall in the area.

The CL5 route begins at Piccadilly station and follows the Ashton Canal through New Islington and Holt Town to the Etihad Campus including Co-op Live Arena, then it loops back towards the city centre joining the existing CityLink before heading through Medlock Valley to Mayfield then back to Piccadilly station. It is expected the first phase of improvement works will begin in the new year.

CyanLines is the nature-powered partnership project aiming to connect blue and green spaces into a high quality network of walking, wheeling and cycling routes for residents, for visitors and for nature. The long term vision is to develop a network of hundreds of miles of CyanLines routes over ten years, starting with the city centres of Manchester and Salford and then stretching out across Greater Manchester to deliver a greener, healthier and more climate-resilient city for the future.