Future housing plan ‘in jeopardy’
THE borough’s 20-year development blueprint could be ‘in jeopardy’, with Rochdale political leaders blaming each other for further potential delays to the major housebuilding plan.
The latest draft of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework includes controversial proposals to build on green belt land, including at Bamford, Newhey and near Smithy Bridge.
Our sister paper the Manchester Evening News reported last month that one part of the legislation was facing a race against time to be signed off before Parliament broke for summer recess. Without it, the framework - which was supposed to be submitted to government
by early next year could be delayed until after next May’s Greater Manchester mayoral elections.
It is understood Mayor’s Andy Burnham’s office are currently looking at how they need to revise the plan ahead of the next phase of the consultation.
Rochdale’s Conservative group this week called for Mr Burnham and Labour-run Rochdale council to use the delay to rethink their support for greenbelt building.
Under the plan 60 per cent of the borough would remain as green belt – making it statistically the greenest of the 10 Greater Manchester authorities and the Labour group has said the framework is key to the borough’s future prosperity, accusing the Tory group of ‘opposition for opposition’s sake’.
In his Observer column Coun Ashley Dearnley, leader of the Conservative group, said: “From recent press reports it is clear that the development plans to build on the greenbelt are in jeopardy as the government have not signed off the necessary order to proceed.
“It is high time that our Labour mayor and Labour council swallow their pride and admit their plans to build in greenbelt are wrong and are not supported by local people.
“Let’s hope they act quickly to remove this blight and actively find suitable brownfield sites for building. Saving our green belt is top priority for the Conservative group.”
Rochdale’s Labour MP laid the blame for the potential delay of the housebuilding plan on “central government incompetence.”
He said: “Ministers should have sorted this out before the recent government reshuffle, and that’s frustrating.
“We do need to do stuff in Rochdale like building new homes, and the other is land to create the employment of the future - factories and offices.
“Hopefully this delay shouldn’t last too long, and I know Rochdale councillors are working hard to find a way round this situation.
“They shouldn’t have been put in this position government ministers should have done their job.”
The spatial framework allows Greater Manchester’s leaders to map out a major development blueprint for the next 20 years and was a key part of the region’s devolution deal in 2014.
Since then it has been delayed a number of times, partly as a result of Andy Burnham promising to rewrite the original draft when he took office as mayor in 2017.
In June, mayor Andy Burnham was grilled on the plan by members of the public on a visit to Rochdale.
Mr Burnham told the audience that local leaders were ‘listening carefully’ to the responses from the latest round of consultation, adding: “We’re trying to find the right balance.
“We want to minimise the green belt take as much as we possibly can, while still meeting the pressure to build homes.”
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