‘It is with a very heavy heart that I write this’
Stockport council says it is ‘powerless'(Image: Manchester Evening News)
A Greater Manchester council has finally revealed where it plans to build thousands of new homes on green belt land. Stockport council’s leader unveiled the plans ‘with a very heavy heart’, claiming the local authority is ‘powerless’ to protect the beauty spots.
The ruling Lib Dem group had promised to protect the green belt from development having voted to pull out of a joint Greater Manchester plan. However, the government introduced high housing targets after Labour won the general election last year.
This meant that a consultation on the last draft of Stockport’s local plan had to be halted and the process was started again.
The local authority has now released the latest version of the plan which sets out where thousands of homes will be built by 2042.
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This includes releasing enough green belt land to accommodate nearly 9,000 homes on sites that are currently protected.
Council leader Mark Roberts said that promised to continue to ‘fight for what is right’, but said the town hall is ‘powerless’.
In a foreword to the plan, he wrote: “It is with a very heavy heart that I write this introduction to the third version of a draft Local Plan.
“Legally we have had to accept the government’s mandate and authority to direct us to deliver a part of the national housing target it has set, requiring the delivery of almost twice as many homes within Stockport.
“This has forced us to release Green Belt sites using the Government’s new methodology.
“We have engaged with this process positively as we are legally obliged to, despite disagreeing about the scale and location of developments, despite disagreeing with the Government’s removal of protections to large swathes of the Green Belt, and despite our frustration at being unable to deliver on the true Brownfield First approach we had already prepared.”
Stockport council leader Mark Roberts
He added: “As an administration we regret the government’s decision to create a second tier of Green Belt that they call “grey belt”. Many of the sites included in this draft Local Plan should not need to be released for development.
“We vehemently disagree with this approach, but we are powerless to stop it. We accept our duty to show leadership and comply with our legal obligations.”
In total, the plan identifies where 16,406 homes could be built over the next two decades, including 8,965 homes on the green belt.
The 219-page document lists 27 sites outside of the existing built-up area across the borough where these homes will be built.
They include some previously developed land, such as the former Offerton High School site, as well as land labelled as ‘grey belt’.
The ‘grey belt’ refers to land that is protected but is considered to be ‘poor quality’ and, accordingly to Labour, should be built on.