Chorlton Cross Shopping Centre has closed to make way for 262 new homes in a controversial redevelopment approved by the council, despite more than 1,300 local objections.

The scheme will see a cluster of mid‑rise blocks at the heart of the suburb, which campaigners say will overpower the district centre and erode what remains of its civic space.

As part of the plans, Southway Housing Trust will manage 49 affordable flats for social rent, split between 16 one‑bed and 33 two‑bed homes. Supporters argue this will deliver much‑needed social housing in a high‑demand area where rents and house prices have risen sharply.

Opponents say the council has accepted an “overly densely packed” design and a poor‑quality public realm in return for too small a number of genuinely affordable homes.

Long‑term resident Liz Clay said many concerns raised during consultation have been ignored. She believes the affordable housing offer is being used to justify a scheme that fails on design and civic life.

“They pitched social housing elements, which of course we need – we need loads of it – and we need lots of other things to restructure the housing market in favour of ordinary people being able to afford their rent and mortgages,” she said.

“But they’ve pitched that against our public realm. We lost our swimming pool, we lost our shopping centre, and we’re losing civic space and it’s becoming privatised.”

Developers insist new public realm is central to the project, including landscaping, new walking routes and a small pocket park. Residents who have studied the plans say that promise does not match what is on paper.

“We’re getting a residential estate in our district centre with a very poor offer on public realm,” Clay said. She claimed the site is being broken up into fragments rather than a genuine town‑centre square. The narrow strip of planting along Barlow Moor Road, she said “is not really a linear park – it’s more of a strip of landscaped area”.

She said other spaces feel like leftover courtyards or access routes rather than places to meet.

For many in Chorlton, the scheme has become a symbol of a wider shift in Manchester’s development, where they feel commercial and housing pressures are reshaping neighbourhoods at their expense. Residents stress they are not opposed to redevelopment in principle.

“I don’t think anyone said they didn’t want the precinct to be redeveloped – we all want it to be redeveloped,” one campaigner said. “But all those objections were there to say: not this big, not this dense, more in keeping with the community.”

Chorlton resident Morag Dennett said the scale and height of the plans have been badly underestimated. “It’s not just one 10‑storey building,” she said. “It’s eight‑storey, six‑, four‑storey buildings. It is so going to dominate the absolute centre of Chorlton, and with no public space.”

She said she had expected councillors to force the height down and is worried the decision could set a precedent for even taller schemes in future.

Others worry about what taller blocks will mean for the area’s character and everyday life.

“You might live like that when you are younger in the city centre, but you move out to a suburb to enjoy that sense of community when you have a family,” Dennett said.

“That’s why taking that sense of low‑rise suburban‑ness out of Chorlton is so worrying – and to me 10 storeys is high‑rise.”

There are also questions about whether local infrastructure can cope with hundreds of new residents. Locals point to limited GP and dental provision and only one large supermarket in the immediate area, which some say already struggles with demand.

Dennett added: “To keep developing more and more land in Chorlton and expect that supermarket to keep up is not a reality,”.

The way the application was handled has left deep frustration about local democracy. Residents are angry that, after such a high number of objections, councillors still voted the plans through.

“The disregarding of the high number of objections is just unforgivable – we’re supposed to live in a democracy,” Dennett said.

“We voted for those councillors, and they are supposed to act for us.”

Despite that sense of finality, campaigners say they plan to “bang some drums and make some noise” to ensure the impact of the decision on Chorlton’s future is not quietly forgotten.