Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition, received an unwanted Christmas present – confirmation that a revised version of Labour’s plan to build thousands of new homes on Oldham’s green spaces will be brought back in 2021. It is likely that this, so-called, ‘development plan of the nine’, a reference to the fact that Stockport Council has now withdrawn from the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, will not come back for consideration before the local and GM mayoral elections this May.
Councillor Sykes wrote to Oldham Council Chief Executive, Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE, enquiring when another meeting would be convened to reconsider the plan and to seek reassurance that the period of public consultation would not be curtailed because of the legal requirements attached to ‘purdah’, a period of several weeks in advance of the date of local elections when there are legal constraints on Council activity.
In a written response, the Head of Dr Wilkin’s office confirmed that “it is unlikely that any revised plans or decisions will be presented back to Council until the new municipal year”; the new 2021-22 municipal year does not commence until after the local elections are held in May.
Commenting Councillor Sykes said: “May’s local election date is also the date that the position of the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is up for re-election. Andy Burnham has been the principal backer of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, the plan to build thousands of unwanted new homes on the Green Belt. The Leader of Oldham Council, Councillor Sean Fielding, and most of his Labour colleagues in Oldham have also backed this plan, as have the other Labour Leaders across Greater Manchester and the Conservative Leader of Bolton Council.
“Only the Liberal Democrat Councillors in the ten authorities in our city region have been consistently opposed to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework from day one, so my advice to voters everywhere who are seeking an end to this plan is back the Liberal Democrats in the local and Greater Manchester Mayoral elections. If you give us your vote, we will fight to save Greater Manchester’s irreplaceable green spaces from housing development.”