On Wednesday evening I attended a briefing on the Council’s “core strategy”. This is important forthcoming guidance on planning use for land in the City, with particular regard to future housing development.
Essentially, Government proposals require the Council to plan for an increase of 38000 homes across the City over the next few decades. Personally I am extremely doubtful that this is a sustainable level of development – and that’s before we get to discuss the effect of the current economic climate.
The Council have come up with four options. They are essentially on a spectrum, with the first option comprising a higher percentage of apartments and concentration on the “regional centre”, and the fourth option looking at more development of family homes in the west of the City including provision to build on greenfield sites and on parts of the Green Belt. In Walkden this would include house building on the greenfield land to the west of Newearth Road and south of Hilton Lane.
The Core Strategy is a huge undertaking and one to which I will return to on this blog on a number of occasions. The consultation period starts today and runs through to the 12th December. You can find more information about the Core Strategy options and how to respond to the consultation on the Council website.
As a local Councillor I’m also keen to hear the views of local residents on the proposed sites. Personally I am extremely sceptical of further development of greenfield and green belt sites but I would welcome the input of the local community into this debate.
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