Greater Manchester ‘Combined Authority’ has announced the ‘next steps’ in the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework announced. This has been agreed by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and the ten council leaders, including Bury’s.

Residents will recall that the first proposals set out plans build significant numbers of houses across Greater Manchester – this was for 227,000 new homes in Greater Manchester over the next 20 years. It also included a significant amount of building on protected ‘Green Belt’ land – Bury fared worst, set to lost 20% of its Green Belt, and in Prestwich, Whitefield and Unsworth the loss was nearly 50% of green belt.

According to the announcement from GMCA: “The second draft will take into account concerns raised by some members of the public during the first consultation period, and will aim to make the most of Greater Manchester’s brownfield sites and reduce the impact on greenbelt”. Importantly this doesn’t say ‘no greenbelt’ ….  Residents may remember that before his election, Andy Burnham made clear promises on the GMSF, and said “I would go further and propose that we consider the aim of no net loss of green belt.”

This process will continue in September with the publication of the responses to the initial consultation. This will be followed later in the year by the publication of data and associated sources of information such as population estimates which will help GMCA calculate the requirements for housing and employment.

The second draft of the plan will be developed in the new year, with a view to publish it in June 2018. Following publication of the draft plan, there will be a 12-week consultation with the public. Conveniently this publication date is just AFTER the next set of elections in Greater Manchester, which take place in May 2018…..

Green belt land proposed to be lost across Greater Manchester in the first proposals.