Ratcliffe is a Manchester City native and one of the wealthiest people in the UK, so INEOS has a lot to offer when he takes over Manchester United, including local connections. Previously, the Daily Mail reported that Ratcliffe was in active communication with the local council to seek investment in the renovation of the buildings and plans for the Old Trafford stadium and its surrounding area, and now there are formal results.
The Trafford Council of Greater Manchester has unveiled a draft 15-year planning framework for 215 acres of land, which includes the redevelopment of the football stadium, the north end of the museum and the Victorian warehouse, which will bring up to 5,000 homes and a new primary school.
The draft plan, a collaboration between the local government, Salford City Council, the District of Peel and Manchester United, will be presented to the Executive Committee for discussion on 26 February, with details to be communicated in early March if approved. The master plan will be divided into five areas: Trafford Dockland, Heritage Grounds, Stadium Areas, Innovation Grounds and Dock Centres, with the Stadium Area being Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium area.
In addition, in order to facilitate the construction of the new stadium, the new plan makes some concessions to the Manchester United stadium area, focusing on improving the public space around Old Trafford, including the demolition of some buildings, the transformation of a 2.5-acre park and other riverside public spaces of Manchester's canals. Liz Patel, MP for Economy and Regeneration at Trafford Council, said: "The master plan provides a vision for a regeneration vision for an extremely important area within Trafford, and we will work with partners, private developers, to seek to build new homes, new neighbourhoods and help create a world-class environment for Manchester United's stadiums. ”
This should be part of the local urban regeneration, with Manchester United's new stadium as an opportunity to attract investment to re-plan and rebuild the surrounding area, and provide housing that is in short supply in the local area. In fact, not only the Old Trafford stadium is very seriously aged, even the surrounding area of the stadium is very seriously aged, many of the roads to Manchester United Stadium have cracked, potholes inside, and some of our old county asphalt roads are as uneven, the surrounding space layout is very unreasonable, Manchester United's parking lot distribution is also very scattered.
This is the benefit brought by INEOS, which has been rumored in the media to have found investors and intends to carry out an overall transformation of the local area, not only to renovate Manchester United, but also to help the local council to transform the surrounding area, so as to be more in line with INEOS's vision of building "Wembley of the North", after all, only the new stadium is top-notch, the surrounding area is still dilapidated, and the traffic on the main road is very bad.
However, planning is not so fast, detailed building planning, budget formulation and allocation, investor funds in place, and related formalities are not so fast, it depends on INEOS's means.