City joins new vision for region

SALFORD has formally agreed to prepare a new development plan with eight other Greater Manchester councils.

Last year, Stockport pulled out of a joint longterm vision for housing, jobs and the environment.

But the successor to this spatial framework will set out where new homes, warehouses and transport links are to be built.

A joint committee made up of the remaining nine boroughs is being set up for the new ‘plan of the nine’ which will be known as Places for Everyone.

But each local authority will get a final vote on whether to approve the plan.

Salford’s deputy mayor John Merry, who has recently taken on planning and development responsibilities at the council, said this plan is ‘really important’.

He said: “People will say, ‘well, why don’t we all abandon this and just do our own thing?’

“This is really, really important in terms of ensuring safeguards to protect us against developers just being able to pick and choose where they go and to be able to put forward their own proposals.

“We desperately need a framework that is going to protect us.”

A WOMAN was taken to hospital after she escaped a house fire in Salford.

The emergency services were called to Aspinall Crescent in Little Hulton at 3.08pm following reports of a house fire.

Firefighters wearing breathing gear tackled a blaze which ripped through a house in the street.

A woman occupant of the house managed to get out of the burning home.

She was treated by paramedics from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) before being taken to hospital.

Her condition has not been revealed.

An investigation into how the fire started has now begun.

A statement from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said a woman had ‘selfrescued’ from the house before firefighters had arrived and she was taken to hospital by NWAS.

It added: “The cause of the fire is under investigation.”

Photos and videos from the scene showed a large police presence in the area, which was cordoned off.