HANDS OFF OUR GREEN BELT!
Hundreds fight plans to create 3,300 jobs at M6 business park
HUNDREDS of residents have voiced their opposition to proposals to turn a Green Belt site near the M6 into a major business park.
The proposed ‘major employment scheme’ for a 70 hectare site south east of junction 16 of the motorway, near Audley, could create up to 3,300 jobs.
Residents were asked for their thoughts on the idea of removing the land from the Green Belt during Newcastle Borough Council’s ‘issues and options’ consultation for its forthcoming local plan.
It turned out to be the most controversial issue in the whole consultation, with 757 people submitting identical letters on the subject, and 1,670 signing petitions.
According to the council report on the consultation, ‘a strong majority’ of people were not in favour of the site being released from the Green Belt.
Objectors raised concerns over the permanent loss of ‘valuable green space’ and agricultural land.
They also said that there were already existing employment developments in Crewe and Alsager, and that local roads would not be able to accommodate the extra traffic generated by the scheme.
Newcastle’s local plan will guide all development in the borough up to 2040.
The 12-week local plan consultation, which was carried
out between November and January, featured a number of faceto-face and virtual meetings.
The council received more than 6,000 comments in total, including petitions and letters.
A total of 289 made 3,649 representations through the consultation portal.
Residents were asked for their views on various issues, such as housing growth, town centre regeneration and development boundaries.
While this consultation did not cover individual site allocations, people were asked for their views on using various greenfield sites, such as the one at junction 16, for housing or employment.
Members of the borough council’s economy and place scrutiny committee discussed the consultation during a recent meeting. Andrew Fear, cabinet member for strategic planning, told the committee that residents would get more opportunity to influence the local plan, with two more rounds of consultation planned.
He said: “This exercise was about awareness raising and information gathering. It certainly wasn’t about carving our words on stone or anything like that. The consultation went on for the best part of three months. We had use of traditional forms of communication, the internet and social media.
“It’s also worth pointing out that there were 10 face-to-face events in this consultation, and this was done in a very difficult time with the Omicron variant bouncing around. I would like to thank our officers for making that possible.”
Scrutiny committee members raised concerns that some residents had faced difficulties accessing the consultation portal website.
But planning policy manager Jemma March told the committee that officers had responded whenever issues like this had been raised. She said: “I would agree that there were teething problems because we had brought in a new software provider. We also found that some people made technical errors on their side, such as not confirming an email address. “But anytime anyone had a problem we instantly responded. We didn’t have anybody that was left unable to make a representation.”
A report on the consultation responses is due to go to cabinet next month, and council leaders say people’s views will inform the development of the local plan. The council has also issued a ‘call for sites’, with landowners and developers being asked to submit potential sites for assessment.