Protesters take to the streets in bid to save green belt
MORE THAN 400 PEOPLE JOIN MARCH AGAINST PLANS
MORE than 400 people marched to protest at proposed development on green belt land.
Three areas of protected countryside around Woodhouses, Oldham, were added to the revised Greater Manchester Spatial Framework this year, to the fury of people who live in the village.
It could see 260 new homes built on land that is currently used for farming and recreation.
On Sunday, hundreds of residents wearing green vests marched from Woodhouses to Failsworth, inspired by Paris’s gilets jaunes movement.
Steve Whitehead, from the M35 Save Our Greenbelt group, said: “The sudden allocation of this land for residential development makes no sense at all – it’s as if someone looked at Google maps and said ‘that will do’ without understanding the impact on the ground.
“Woodhouse Village already has serious congestion with people using it as a cut-through to Manchester city centre with thousands of pounds about to be spent on traffic calming measures, so the addition of another 600 or so vehicles would be madness.
“There is no public transport alternative. The nearest train station is at Ashburys or trams at Hollinwood, and the bus service into the city only runs every 20 minutes and takes at least 40 minutes to get into Manchester”
As reported by the M.E.N. in January, the proposed development would allocate housing to three separate parcels of land around Woodhouses.
The largest of those lies to the north west of the village, immediately behind the Woodhouse Gardens pub – with the footprint appearing to extend almost as far as Failsworth. Another wedge sits next to the M60, stretching north from Ashton Road towards Cutler Road.
The smallest sits south of the village, appearing to extend off Hartshead Crescent onto fields.
It is not clear from the plan how many homes would go on each site, but it says ‘appropriate’ access points will be provided in order to lessen the impact on surrounding roads, plus ‘high quality walking and cycling infrastructure and public transport facilities’ such as bus stops.
‘High quality landscaping’ and ‘green infrastructure’ will also be needed in order to soften the visual impact, it added. The Woodhouses proposals did not feature in the first draft of the framework, released in 2016.
Although the revised plans propose 50 per cent less development on Green Belt land overall, a string of new Green Belt sites were added in Oldham. In total, the revised framework could see 14,290 homes built across the borough between now and 2037.
Campaigners say they are concerned the development would put pressure on local services and are calling on the sites to be removed from the framework until a neighbourhood plan has been created for the village.
Mr Whitehead added: “The Combined Authority talks about sustainable development, but this would be the exact opposite.
“The social infrastructure could not cope with a minimum of 520 new people and there is no alternative to the cars which goes against all latest policy both locally and nationally causing not just traffic congestion but air pollution.
“This is the first proper countryside on the doorstep of East Manchester and we must fight to protect that.”