Agenda item

Local residents are being invited to attend their local Area Committees and to learn more about the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) proposals.

The GMSF plan seeks to build 19,000 homes in the next two decades across Stockport, as well as bring new jobs and new infrastructure (such as transport links, utility networks, schools and health provision) required to achieve this.

Caroline Simpson, Corporate Director for Place Management and Regeneration, and Steve Johnson, Planning Policy Officer, attended the meeting and made a presentation in respect of the consultation being undertaken by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

The Greater Manchester Spatial Framework was a joint development plan document which was being prepared by the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester. It would be a strategic plan which ensured that Greater Manchester protected and enhanced the current infrastructure and had the right land in the right places to deliver the homes and jobs needed up to 2035, along with identifying the new infrastructure required to achieve this. It aimed to ensure that Greater Manchester became as well known for the quality of its environment as for its economic success.

If adopted the plan would be the overarching development plan within which Greater Manchester’s ten local planning authorities could identify more detailed sites for jobs and homes in their own area. As such the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework would not cover everything that a Local Plan would cover and individual districts would continue to produce their own Local Plans.

The following comments were made/issues raised:-

• Issues such as the type and tenure of housing,and sewerage systems would be examined as part of the Masterplan should the framework be adopted.
• Appropriate and improved public transport was necessary to serve the existing Cheadle area and the areas of proposed new housing. The proposals were being put forward at a time when local bus services were being reduced. It was pointed out that the Greater Manchester Devolution Deal included the possibility that the Council would have control of bus franchising in the future.
• People with certain disabilities could not use public transport and were reliant on their car as their primary mode of transport.
• The strategy needed to address the increasingly ageing population in the country with increasing needs and the strategy needed to be cognisant of the need for more health facilities.
• The proposals needed to be seen in the context of the proposals from Cheshire East Council to build additional housing in proximity to the A34 and there would be no way to ameliorate the consequential traffic problems. It was pointed out that Officers were carrying out work with Officers from Cheshire East Council on the A34 Corridor.
• A Member raised the viability of a lot of the brownfield sites which were being looked at. He expressed concern that a number of the brownfield sites could be found to be contaminated meaning that they remained undeveloped at the same time as houses were being built in the green belt.
• If given the choice developers would choose to build houses in the green belt rather than overcome the problems which may be associated with brownfield sites which may make a scheme unprofitable from a developer's point of view.
• Some of the costs of the infrastructure required would be met by developers as part of planning agreements.
• Although the consultation closed on 23 December 2016, there would be another opportunity for members of the public to comment on the proposals when the next iteration of the plan was published next year.
• If approved by the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester, the plan would be sent to Central Government who would need to be reassured as to its deliverability in terms of improvements to the infrastructure in the area. Ultimately an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State would decide on the deliverability or otherwise of the plan.
• Houses needed to be affordable for people who came to work and live in Greater Manchester. Concern was expressed that none of the houses currently being built on the former Woodford Aerodrome site were affordable.
• Affordable housing needed to be included in the initial phases of housing developments.
• The starting point for the proposals were the figures for population projection which had led in turn to the housing targets.
• A resident expressed the view that the green belt in the vicinity of Heald Green would to all intents and purposes be destroyed by the proposals. There would be no land available to build the necessary improvements to the infrastructure.
• There were no plans within the proposals to compulsory purchase land or property within the proposals.

RESOLVED – That Caroline Simpson and Steve Johnson be thanked for their attendance and presentation.