Up to 25,000 jobs and more than 12,000 new homes could be created in Bury under a new development plan for Greater Manchester.
If the proposals go ahead, it would mean the creation of a major employment generating site near Pilsworth covering an area bigger than Trafford Park.
This is just one of the proposals being considered by Bury and the nine other Greater Manchester councils under the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF). This is a strategic planning guide to meeting the region’s employment and housing needs for the next 20 years and beyond.
Across Greater Manchester, it is estimated that an additional 200,000 new jobs would be created by 2035 and around 225,000 new homes would be needed to meet demand. The GMSF aims to ensure that new homes and jobs are provided in the right places with the transport and other infrastructure (roads, rail, Metrolink, schools, health care) to support the communities and manage growth sustainably.
The majority of proposed development within the Framework is on brownfield land. However, for Greater Manchester to build the number of homes and develop the amount of business space that will be required in the future, a small percentage of proposed development will be on land within the existing greenbelt, as outlined in the draft plan.
This draft plan will be considered by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on 28 October for approval to begin an eight-week consultation period from 31 October to 23 December. All stakeholders, including members of the public, are encouraged to have a say. Views submitted will be considered and a final draft will be published in 2017 when another period of consultation will be held.
Councillor Rishi Shori, leader of Bury Council, said: “It is vital that employment sites are identified to provide decent jobs for our growing population, which the Government estimates will increase by 20,000 by the year 2035.
“Taking a strategic approach allows us to look to developers to meet their share of the costs of infrastructure requirements, unlike the current piecemeal approach.In drawing up Bury’s proposals, we have been at pains to avoid urban sprawl and to avoid damaging the borough’s environmental attractiveness.
“The proposed sites have been carefully assessed against important criteria, such as flood risk, and not all of the employment land or 12,000 homes will be built immediately. Individual planning applications will still have to considered and approved by the council’s planning committee, and it will take many years for these to come forward.
“Individual sites will not be fully developed, as there will be considerable green space left within them and in fact some sites will open up more green space to public use.”
The largest site that is proposed to be released from the Green Belt in Bury is on the eastern side of the M66, which is proposed to be a new employment site of national significance, creating thousands of new jobs within the borough. The site already has excellent motorway links and will need significant investment to improve public transport links to ensure that the new jobs are accessible by the local workforce.
Cllr Shori said: “The potential economic benefits and employment opportunities of this site are a complete game-changer. Bury has one of the highest out-commuting rates in Greater Manchester because of the lack of local employment opportunities and this site will provide quality jobs that will reduce the need for our local workforce to out-commute. It will significantly improve the life chances of our residents, helping to address the inequalities that exist within the borough.
“Clearly, there will need to be improvements to the local infrastructure and we will be working hard with landowners, developers and public bodies to ensure that this site remains successful in years to come, rivalling other GM employment hotspots like Trafford Park.”
The Government’s population projections mean that more than 12,000 new homes will be needed across Bury over the next two decades, much of which can only be accommodated on land currently designated as Green Belt. This figure represents around 5% of the total proposed housing target in Greater Manchester that is likely to emerge through the draft GMSF plan. The largest of the sites proposed is the land around Elton Reservoir, where some 3,500 new homes are proposed. Large schemes are also proposed in Walshaw and Simister.
Cllr Sandra Walmsley, cabinet member for strategic housing and support services, said: “There clearly is a need to build more homes, including affordable homes, to meet the needs of a growing population that is living longer. The Government’s housing targets are a challenge and the only way that we can meet these is to provide new homes on Green Belt land.
“We have consistently said that we want to prioritise the development of brownfield land and the council is working hard to get our borough’s vacant sites developed. However, the powers available to us to force landowners and developers to build on these sites is limited, and the council is lobbying the Government for powers to tackle those who fail to develop land within a reasonable timeframe.”
She added: “The draft GMSF has been prepared in line with the Government’s national planning policy, which has increased the emphasis on plans meeting the full identified development needs. The only way that this can be done in Greater Manchester and Bury is to release some Green Belt land. However, the council will seek to ensure that where land is released for development that the sites retain large areas of open land for recreation purposes and to protect local ecology.
“It is inevitable that there will be significant challenges to the sites that the draft GMSF proposes. This will come from local residents, who may want to retain particular areas as Green Belt. Challenge will also come from the numerous landowners and developers who have put forward a further 500 hectares of land for development in the borough, which the plan proposes should instead be retained for Green Belt.
“Having said that, the proposals are also likely to be welcomed by others, including residents who would like to work in quality jobs within the borough but are currently restricted by a lack of available job opportunities and those who are struggling to find an affordable home.”
Around 500 hectares of Green Belt land was also suggested by landowners and developers but it is not proposed that these areas are released in the plan.
