We’ve got two days left to have our say on the controversial ‘Places for Everyone’ plan before it is submitted to Government.

Places for Everyone is the new name for the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, the plan proposes land for 165,000 more houses across Greater Manchester in the next 15 years. (To put that in context the whole of Bury added together currently has 77,000 houses.) In Bury the plan would mean the loss of 1,700 hectares of precious green belt land (countryside). 

The four big ‘sites’ for Bury are: 
– Prestwich/Simister/Bowlee – space for 1,550 new houses on what is now ‘green belt’ (it is farmland) to the north of Heaton Park (between Simister and Middleton). Plans include a new primary school. It is important to note that these proposals are slightly away from the existing Simister village (a small improvement on previous plans), but right up to existing homes on the Bowlee and Rhodes side. 
– a major area of employment/industrial development to the north of the M62 between Prestwich/Whitefield and Middleton/Heywood. Essentially this is a large area on the north side of the M62 from Simister island to the Heywood/Middleton junction on the M62. Half is in Bury, half in Rochdale. This will provide space for 1.2million square metres of industrial and warehousing build, and 1,000 houses on the Rochdale side. 
– 3,500 new houses near Radcliffe on existing green belt land (large area of countryside around around Elton Reservoir)
– 1,400 new houses near Walshaw on existing green belt land. 

The plan was approved by Bury Council (Liberal Democrat Councillors voted AGAINST), and will now be submitted to Government for its consideration, alongside all the comments we make.

Please take a couple of minutes to have your say before the deadline on Sunday 3 October 2021.

More information and how you can have your say here.