Burnham in green belt ‘stand-off’
ANDY Burnham and the region’s council chiefs are at an ‘absolute stand-off’ over the future of the region’s green belt, the M.E.N. understands.
A revised draft of Greater Manchester’s spatial framework, the conurbation’s long-term planning blueprint, had been due to emerge next month.
But with a few weeks to go, the mayor’s office has told council leaders to go back to the drawing board, arguing it still earmarks too many green belt sites for development.
Mr Burnham had promised a ‘radical’ rewrite of the plan in his election manifesto, pledging that it would see ‘no net loss’ of green belt.
Council bosses had then gone away to rewrite it and are understood to have removed between 30pc and 40pc of green belt sites originally proposed.
But the mayor’s office told him yesterday that he wants a much higher figure, resulting in a stand-off as town hall chiefs argue they have now done all they can without harming the economic future of the conurbation.
“I think everybody is just a bit frustrated about it,” said a senior official in one local authority. “It’s been years and years of work. “We had a document which was acceptable to local authorities before Andy came in - and we had to rip it up and start again.
“This isn’t the local authorities, it’s Andy wanting an unrealistic share of green belt taken out of it.
“It’s going to fall short of what he believes he’s committed himself to, basically. His office is really not happy.”
Council bosses had been jointly granted powers to draw up Greater Manchester’s long-term development masterplan under 2014’s devolution deal, prior to a mayor being in place.
It was seen as a major element in the region’s ability to self-determine, allowing leaders to earmark land for new jobs and homes.
The first draft caused uproar, however, particularly in areas across Greater Manchester where green belt sites were proposed for housing or commercial development.
Mr Burnham then promised to tear up the plan during his 2017 election campaign. Following his victory in May last year, each of the ten councils went away to rewrite their part as a result.
After a series of delays - the latest of which was due to the government revising its housing targets for the region - a new date for the revised draft was set for October, ahead of a major public consultation.
It is understood that over the summer, town halls completed drafts with which they were broadly satisfied, substantially reducing the number of protected green spaces earmarked for future development.
However, at a private meeting with council leaders and chief executives yesterday, Mr Burnham’s aide Kevin Lee told them more reductions were still needed. The mayor was not present due to his being on a trade mission to China.
“Andy thinks it’s not enough to justify his pledge of a radical rewrite,” said one official.
One irritated senior councillor said Mr Burnham said: “The leaders are basically happy with their proposals and now Andy has decided he wants to push back and make it more radical,” they said. “There was a strong view at the meeting yesterday that he’d left it too late in the day.”