Council spent £160,000 on ex England & Man Utd player

February 5, 2019

A recent report released on the Manchester Evening News website and from information shared via Freedom of Information Act reports on Trafford Council spending £160,000 of public money on land due to plans submitted by ex Manchester United defender Gary Neville. Currently a regular football pundit on television and with a large property portfolio in his ownership, his controversial plans to develop on Turn Moss playing fields to develop for Salford City FC were met with a storm of protests and ultimately the plans were scrapped.

Though a negative headline hitting news story, to be honest it looked like a decent plan that had been put together to turn the flooded land in to training pitches to include cafe, playground, changing rooms, an exercise trail and a 4G pitch.

The Freedom of Information Act showed that the previous Conservative administration had spent a total of £162,306 on consultants and on design & investigation costs.

The fault of Gary Neville? Not living there and knowing what the current land offers locals, it is not for me to comment, but it sounded like it could have been a good development for the local community seeing that David Beckham is now a share holder of Salford City FC.

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

You May Also Enjoy

Overseas Property

The most in-demand holiday home destinations

Alicante is the ideal place in the sun when it comes to Brit foreign property dreams Province on Spain’s Eastern coast is the most popular destination for Brits in TV foreign property series Almeria and the Costa Del Sol are in the top three based on analysis of 1,000 episodes of A Place In The…
Read More →
Breaking News

Two Weeks to Go for First Phase of Renters’ Rights Act

With just two weeks until the first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act comes into effect, letting agents across England are being urged to ensure they are fully prepared for the significant operational and compliance changes ahead. From 1 May 2026, the new legislation will introduce wide-ranging reforms to tenancy structures, possession processes and rent…
Read More →
Breaking News

Housing Insight Report: February 2026

The housing market shows steady activity, ongoing challenges with sales agreed rising slightly and stock levels stable, while affordability pressures and longer transaction times continue to strain buyers and sellers. Demand is strong in the rental sector, with significant competition among tenants despite only a modest increase in available properties. Rents have remained relatively stable…
Read More →
Breaking News

London boasts biggest property market gap

UK’s property price gaps exposed: London tops with £838k difference between top and bottom of the market The latest research from eXp UK has revealed the scale of the price divide between the most and least expensive property markets across each region of the UK, with three areas seeing average house price gaps of more…
Read More →
Letting Agent Talk

Questions raised over tenant-agent trust gap

New research from Propoly has found that while over half of tenants describe their letting agent as professional, quick to respond to queries, and efficient in handling maintenance issues, issues still exist, particularly a widespread suspicion that agents are not working in the tenants’ favour. Propoly commissioned a survey of 1,000 UK tenants* to understand…
Read More →
Letting Agent Talk

29 is the age house sharing becomes ‘embarrassing’

but 11% still do it, according to new Nationwide research That equates to 27 million admitting they have felt embarrassed about their living situation With 69% saying living alone is unaffordable, it’s no surprise the average age of those in house shares is 35 From moving home (12%) to living with an ex (10%), as…
Read More →