Remain after revision
travel through Milnrow and Newhey.
“The ward is pinned by Kiln Lane and Jubilee Bridge which are 18th century single track roads. It is already ‘chocka’, where is the forethought to alleviate this?
“It’s disgraceful that no thought has gone into expansion of the roads network, buses, trams or how vital services like schools, doctors or parking.”
Like Coun Sullivan he also questions whether the amount of new green belt land in the scheme is all it seems.
“This is nothing but smoke and mirrors as Firgrove is in currently in trust and cannot be built upon but presumably, now it’s green belt, it can be!”
And Coun Kelly also slammed the lack of social and affordable and starter homes in the plan.
“We might as well be giving our young people an eviction notice from the Pennines now as there will be no feasible way anyone under 25 will ever be able to afford to live here without parental support,” he said.
And like campaigners in Bamford he does not accept that all brownfield sites have been exhausted – and called for a different approach to development.
“We have four major manufacturers and industrial companies in Milnrow that cannot expand because of geography. We should be talking to them about how we can support them to expand and relocate to Kingsway for example, to increase productivity and employment.
“The whole of the centre of Milnrow could then become a garden village, on the Riverside, by the Metrolink and with motorway access. There would be space for a much need school, parking, leisure and retail. But we seem to have gone with a shortsighted ‘build big houses in the green belt’ policy that takes no consideration for infrastructure.”
Perhaps the key pillar in the entire Rochdale plan is The Northern Gateway.
The huge site – which runs between junctions 18 and 19 of the M62, close to Heywood Distribution Park – is earmarked for 1,600 new homes and more than 600,000 square metres of employment it’s actually been increased, that fact alone sums up where we are,” he said.
“The biggest development has gone from 1,000 to 1,600 homes, it’s gone from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous in our opinion,” said Mr Court. “It’s an easy way of building houses – you grab a big chunk of green belt land, build houses on it. It’s all wonderful.”
He continued: “The bottom line is that politicians have been downright lazy. They have got brownfield sites but have gone to enormous lengths to prove they can’t really develop it or it’s not really there, when their own research projects show they have enough brownfield sites.”
Mr Court believes Rochdale chiefs are essentially being driven by a fear other boroughs could steal an ecomonic march on them in future.
He said: “It seems fairly obvious there’s a green belt grab – a sense that if they don’t do something now, they will never do it. If everyone else does it before, we will lose out.
“You are not talking about sustainable development – or need – we are saying ‘we need to get ours before they get theirs. And Rochdale council has probably flown that flag more than most.”
The plan includes proposals for improvements to the Metrolink and rail service, but Mr Court remains unconvinced.
“The reality is none of that is here,” he said. “All the planning guidlines, including the ones Rochdale council subscribe to, say you don’t develop there unless you have the transport infrastructure. They have gone for a land grab in case they miss out – I think that is pretty self-evident. They are trying to masquerade behind housing need and development. We do need to build new houses, but we need cleverer solutions than just grabbing bits of green belt.”