City of Salford at Future Cities Forum

As part of our Northern Powerhouse discussion panel, Salford City Council's Development Director, Shelagh McNerney will be discussing investment and growth in the city and the next set of challenges and opportunities that it faces in its expansion, at our February forum at RIBA North in Liverpool.

Over the last 20 years, Salford has experienced a period of both economic and physical rejuvenation. It has attracted billions of pounds of private sector investment, diversified the business base at MediaCity UK and Central Salford, raising the City’s profile nationally and has created the conditions for significant, further business growth. Port Salford, a freight terminal on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, six miles west of Manchester City Centre, is the first tri-modal inland waterway port in the UK. New road infrastructure works around it are under way and a large logistics building is operating for food and drink distribution specialists.

Shelagh joined Salford City Council in May 2015 following 10 years in the private sector. Her role is to help the Council and its many partners to deliver development, investment and regeneration across the City and maximise the benefits of growth. Her interests lie particularly in making the connections between agencies and investors so that development is the very best quality and achieves the very best impacts for residents and businesses for the long term. This is at the heart of place making and beyond single professional disciplines. Shelagh was born and bred in Liverpool and left the City in 1983 to become a town planner.

In the mid 1980’s Shelagh attended the Bartlett School of Architecture & Planning, University College London and joined Cheshire County Council. Since then, her career has included leading large-scale regeneration and investment programmes for Manchester City Council - particularly to the North and East of the City. She has also worked in the private sector as a Director in large and small architecture and planning practices. She has led complex strategic planning work and is equally at home with the construction details for new homes, schools and infrastructure.

Shelagh has worked with public and private sector clients and led innovative work at the North West Construction Hub, working with construction companies to deliver changes in working practices. Most recently she worked at the Think Tank “ResPublica” where she was a contributing author and researcher making the case for HS2 investment into Liverpool.

Shelagh brings experience of life at every scale of city development from government policy formulation, city growth strategies, master planning and place-making for cities,

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