Lanes teams “honoured” to help create Glade of Light memorial

The Lanes Group plc team feels honoured to have contributed to the creation of a memorial to the victims of the Manchester arena bombing, says the company’s Business Development Director, Richard Leigh.

The Glade of Light, which has opened in Manchester’s Medieval Quarter, has a “halo” of white marble inscribed with the names of the 22 people killed, many of them very young, in the 2017 atrocity.

Drainage engineers from Lanes, which has a HQ office and a full service depot in Eccles, Greater Manchester, carried out drainage investigations and cleaning for the project’s main contractor, Galliford Try.

Richard Leigh said: “It has been an honour to be part of the team that created this very special memorial. Like others, our colleagues in Manchester and across the UK were shocked by the bombing.

“The opening of the Glade of Light is an important step in the process if healing after such a devastating event. Everyone has said how wonderful it is, and how apt that it is a living memorial.”

The tribute, to those who died and the hundreds injured, is located close to Manchester Cathedral, at the point where Fennel Street meets Victoria Street.

It features wild plants that grow naturally in the UK countryside, selected to provide year-round colour. Every year, at around the date of the anniversary, 22 May, the flowers of a hawthorn tree at its centre will bloom.

Lanes’ drainage team used a jet vac tanker and specialist remote access CCTV cameras to clean and survey pipe work surrounding the memorial and surface water drainage pipes installed as the memorial was built.

It was important to make sure the pipework was connected properly and worked well so water drained effectively. This ensured the memorial would not be damaged and could be accessed at all times.

Relatives of victims have been impressed by the Glade of Light memorial. They have had time capsules dedicated to their lost loved-ones incorporated in the stone halo.

Figen Murrey MBE, the mother of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the bombing, told the BBC it was a “a beautiful tribute”.

She added: “What happened was an attack not just on the 22 killed, it was an attack on our city and our democracy so to mark that is something special.”

Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig said: “We will never forget those whose lives were lost. They already had a permanent place in the hearts of Manchester people. Now they have a lasting memorial in the heart of our city. Love is stronger than hate.”

The Manchester Arena attack happened when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb he was carrying in a ruck sack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.