Mayor told to ‘get a grip and lead project over line’
ANDY Burnham has been told to ‘get a grip’ and ensure the region’s development masterplan gets over the line after a row over an industrial estate left it dangling by a thread.
The third - and final version of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework was due to be revealed on Monday, but it was pulled as Stockport and Tameside bosses continued to argue over plans to extend Bredbury Park industrial estate into the Tame Valley.
It raises the incredible possibility that the blueprint, developed in partnership by all ten boroughs over the last five years, could be scuppered at the eleventh hour.
Councillor John Blundell, Rochdale town hall’s regeneration chief, says that cannot be allowed to happen as boroughs in the north of the region desperately need the prosperity it would bring.
He says it is now up to the mayor to ensure the spatial framework does not collapse at the last minute.
He said: “Andy Burnham needs to get a grip of the plan and lead on it. He has good links with Stockport and recently promoted Coun Elise Wilson to the economy portfolio on the combined authority.
“The reason this has come up again now is because it wasn’t settled in 2017 because he ordered a radical rewrite of the spatial framework.
“If you’re going to throw the old plan in the bin you need to make sure the new one gets through.”
A key aim of the spatial framework is ‘boosting northern competitiveness’ - closing the gap between the more deprived areas of the north and the affluent south of the conurbation.
The version which leaked this week says the likes of Rochdale, Oldham and Bury are not realising their full potential - and ‘if current trends continue then disparities between the northern and southern areas will increase’.
Rochdale believes its GMSF proposals would boost its economy by around £700m a year and create more than 11,000 new jobs.
Coun Blundell added: “People in the north are looking at this with dismay. We really need this plan to go ahead and he [Mr Burnham] needs to recognise that.
“The ambition keeps getting scaled back, but the boroughs in the north need this to happen.
“The mayor needs to recognise that, although there are tensions in some parts of Greater Manchester, the opposite is also true and we are desperate to get this over the line.”
It became apparent that the spatial framework had run into trouble late last week, when it is understood a row over Bredbury Park industrial estate broke out between Tameside and Stockport councis.
A blistering open letter to Stockport leader Coun Wilson from Denton and Reddish MP Andrew Gwynne MP - and three Denton South councillors - also emerged, as tensions reached boiling point.
It is understood a compromise may have been found, but it remains to be seen whether this holds up.
There is still no official word on when the new spatial framework will be published.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) said: “Our Plan for Homes, Jobs and the Environment, the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, is currently being finalised and will be published once necessary final changes have been made.”