Help save greenbelt

STOCKPORT residents have just a week left to speak out and protect our local green belt. There is now less than one week to go before the end of the public consultation on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) which closes on January 16.

The GMSF is the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s plans for the management of land for housing, commercial and industrial use over the next 20 years. In its current draft form it proposes the release of up to 9 per cent of Stockport’s green belt, to make way for large scale housing developments.

In my own submission to the GMSF consultation, which is published on my website, I argued that whilst we recognise the urgent need for new homes, brownfield land that has previously been used for commercial or industrial purposes is more suitable for house building and should be prioritised for development.

If we make sites in the green belt available now, the volume house builders will develop these first, and then they will come back for more green belt land before they even look at urban land.

I am therefore encouraging residents who share these concerns to make a submission to the consultation process. For further information on the consultation visit greatermanchester-ca.gov. uk/info/20081/draft_plan.

In the final weeks before Christmas I organised a debate in the House of Commons raising concerns about the Framework, and also presented a petition to the House of Commons, calling to avoid including large-scale residential development on the green belt in Stockport and across Greater Manchester, after it gained over 3,900 signatures. My petition is still open and I am delighted that over the New Year period we passed the 4,000 mark. Sign up at www.williamwragg.org.