Plans to build 1,250 homes on a green belt area of Bury are set to be withdrawn this week. The 158-acre site in the Walshaw area, was previously earmarked for development in the Greater Manchester Places for Everyone housing and development masterplan which sets out plans for the region for the next two decades.
However, housing development sites on green belt land set to deliver thousands of additional homes at Elton reservoir and Simister and Bowlee still remain in the plans. The plans have proved controversial in the borough with the council’s Conservative opposition group and the Radcliffe First party, who have eight members, vehemently opposing any green belt housing development in Bury.
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Pressure groups, including Bury Folk Keep It Green, who say they are the largest green belt campaign group in the UK, have also campaigned against such development. They have joined with other like minded groups to seek legal routes in opposing elements of the Places For Everyone plan, which is being drawn up by nine of the 10 Greater Manchester councils after Stockport withdrew from the process.
Bury’s Labour led leadership will this week ask planning inspectors to withdraw the Walshaw site. A report, to be presented to the council’s cabinet on Wednesday says that a new assessment of housing need over the next 15 years is around 1,000 higher than earlier estimates.
The council said this is because plans to regenerate Bury and Radcliffe town centres, plus the Mill Gate centre in Bury which the council has bought, gives an opportunity to build more houses on these urban brownfield sites.
The council is therefore looking at removing one of three large sites – the other two sites being Elton Reservoir and Simister/Bowlee – from Places for Everyone. The council said that Walshaw is the most suitable to be removed as new housing on that site would not deliver the same strategic benefits as the other two.
Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, leader of the council, said: “The new evidence shows an increase in opportunities for new housing in sustainable locations within the existing urban area that were not apparent at the Places for Everyone submission stage. This is the direct result of our commitment to deliver brownfield first and regenerate our town centres. This requires significant effort, a commitment to intervention and a clear plan for how we can get this done, which we have been working on for several years now. Only by doing the hard work can we make changes like this.
“To retain all the original site allocations would lead to Bury having an overall housing supply that would be significantly in excess of the PfE target, which we have already reduced by being part of a joint plan.
“Therefore, we are proposing to remove the Walshaw site from consideration in keeping with our pledge to reduce the impact of the Government’s housing targets on the green belt where we can.”
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