Salford Quays - Watersports Park community garden and Huron Basin tree works

Alongside the water, the tree-lined walkways and green spaces have become an iconic and a much-loved part of Salford Quays. After 35 years, many of these avenues and spaces now require some form of management to keep the trees healthy and grow to full maturity in the future.

In some instances, the trees have become diseased and in a potentially windy location they are now putting pressure on each other.  Along with the requirement to protect and enhance the tree avenues, recent community consultation has highlighted the need for the council to provide more green space that can be used.  The space next to Salford Watersports Centre is one of The Quays’ largest green spaces but because of the way the space is set out, is largely underused.  

The project

We will therefore begin work on 24 January on two key spaces in The Quays to improve the green spaces and secure the health of the tree-lined avenues long into the future. These spaces are the greenspace adjacent to the Watersports Centre and the tree-lined avenue alongside Huron Basin that runs next to The Quays road.

Works to the Watersports Park include:

• Creation of a community garden: Working with Salford Ranger Team and the council’s landscape architects, a team of volunteers have designed four new planting beds that will bring colour and interest to the unused green space. The ranger team will assist the community volunteers to sustain the community garden as a legacy asset.
• Other works include tree management, including removal of 23 of the area’s 42 trees, this will allow the trees space to grow to full maturity, preventing tree canopies overlapping, and also open up access and light making the space more useable for all.

Work to the tree-lined corridor next to Huron Basin includes a more comprehensive intervention replacing the full avenue. Four dead trees were removed in Summer 2021 and a full inspection of the corridor has revealed significant damage and disease since the trees were fully pollarded in 2015. After exploring different options, the council were advised that a complete replacement would be the best course of action. 

These works will consist of:

• Tree replacement: Removal of 35 trees and re-planting of 24 along the two avenue rows. Introduction of gaps and new tree species to create a similar avenue impact but with fewer requirements to prune/pollard therefore minimising the risk of damaging the tree crowns and future susceptibility to disease.
• Increased area for the tree pits to aid drainage into the trees leading to a healthier future tree stock. 
• More tree species helping to increase biodiversity, increased resistance to disease and an increased visual interest. 

Trees planted next to the Huron Basin will be semi-mature but have been specified to allow the trees to grow into the spaces available.  Whilst tree pit drainage will be expanded the existing tree pits remain restricted, the council have therefore been advised that mature trees in a limited space may risk root damage. 

The works will create a treescape that requires less heavy management techniques in the future but will also provide more colour and interest at other times of the year.

How long will the works take?

Works will begin on the Monday 24 January 2022 lasting for eight weeks. The contract is being managed by the council's landscape team and the Huron Basin work has been funded by S106 contributions collected from surrounding developments to improve the future sustainability of the green infrastructure across Salford Quays.

Quayside works by Quayside Shopping Mall

Work will begin on Tuesday 15 February 2022 along the boulevard to the south of Quayside to remove and fell some trees along the existing corridor. These works are being undertaken for Quayside Shopping Mall as part of its plans to ensure the continued health of the current treescape along the Quayside. The plans were approved by the council, as landowner, in June 2019. We expect that the works will last until June 2022. Planning documents for the Quayside works can be viewed online.