06Oct 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Places for Everyone must not compromise Green Belt for anyone

Places for Everyone must not compromise Green Belt for anyone

Borough news
The Oldham Liberal Democrats have submitted their response to the consultation being conducted by the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester outlining their opposition to his latest Places for Everyone plan.  Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE summarised the position of Liberal Democrat Councillors to the Mayor’s proposals: “We remain implacably opposed to any plan to build new homes on our open spaces; our view remains Places for Everyone must not compromise Green Belt for anyone.  We believe that the requirement for new homes can be met with our stated policy to build first and always on brownfield sites, to push for the completion of development on sites with existing planning permission for new housing, and to act with purpose to bring back into use our empty homes or to convert…
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13Aug 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Liberal Democrats call on public to Say No to Labour’s Green Belt land grab

Liberal Democrats call on public to Say No to Labour’s Green Belt land grab

Borough news
Oldham residents can now have their say on Labour’s latest Places for Everyone plan and the Oldham Liberal Democrats are urging everyone to say No to Labour’s Green Belt and green land grab. Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Howard Sykes said: “The Liberal Democrats tried at the last Council meeting (July 28) to seek Oldham’s withdrawal from Places for Everyone because it will still mean the loss of much of our precious and irreplaceable Green Belt, but Labour used its bloc vote to get it through.  Now the public can have their say in this latest consultation to say No to Labour’s latest version of Mayor Burnham’s Green Belt land grab." Places for Everyone is the successor to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) which was derailed after Stockport Liberal Democrats…
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28Jul 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Liberal Democrats propose Local Plan to stop Green Belt development

Liberal Democrats propose Local Plan to stop Green Belt development

Borough news
Liberal Democrat Councillors will be proposing that Oldham Council refuse to participate in Labour’s ‘Places for Everyone’ plan and instead develop only a Local Plan for housing development to save the borough’s Green Belt. At the special Council meeting (from 6pm, Wednesday 28 July), Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE will be proposing an amendment to the report presented to Council calling for withdrawal from ‘Places for Everyone’ and the creation of only a Local Plan. The amendment will be seconded by the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani. Councillor Sykes said: “Places for Everyone is simply the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework repackaged; it is still predicated upon the flawed assumption that it is right and necessary to build thousands of new homes on…
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26Jul 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Liberal Democrats to lead battle in Council to save Oldham’s Green Belt

Liberal Democrats to lead battle in Council to save Oldham’s Green Belt

Borough news
Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE and his party colleagues will vehemently oppose the Places for Everyone plan when it is debated by Oldham Council at a special meeting on 28 July. Oldham Council’s Labour Cabinet is expected to approve taking the plan to Council when it meets on 28 July, and Councillor Sykes and the Liberal Democrat Group will be leading the battle in Council to save Oldham’s green belt from the threat of housing development. “Oldham residents should be in no doubt that Places for Everyone is simply the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework rebadged and repackaged. It contains the self-same fatal flaw – an assumption that it is right and necessary to build thousands of new homes on our precious and irreplaceable Green Belt and on…
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27Mar 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Liberal Democrats oppose Labour’s new Green Belt homes ‘Places for Everyone’ plan

Liberal Democrats oppose Labour’s new Green Belt homes ‘Places for Everyone’ plan

Borough news
Despite Liberal Democrat opposition, Labour voted to take forward the so-called ‘Places for Everyone’ plan at Wednesday’s Council’s meeting (24 March 2021). The new plan will lead to thousands of new homes being built on Oldham’s Green Belt. Councillors considered a report to make an agreement to ‘prepare a joint development plan’ to replace the discredited Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and to delegate the Leader of the Council to sit on an oversight committee with the Leaders of eight of the other nine Greater Manchester authorities. All of these are led by Labour Leaders, other than Bolton which has a Conservative Administration. Stockport Liberal Democrats torpedoed the previous plan by voting against Stockport being involved with it at a Council meeting held there in December 2020. At Wednesday’s meeting (24/03/21),…
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09Feb 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Starter gun sounded for the ‘new son’ of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework – the ‘Development Plan for the Nine’

Starter gun sounded for the ‘new son’ of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework – the ‘Development Plan for the Nine’

Borough news
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority will consider approving in principle a proposal to develop a new plan to build homes across nine of the ten districts of Greater Manchester at a meeting of its Executive next Friday (12 February). Surprisingly no specific timescale is given in the report for the plan’s production, but the Government requires a local plan to be in place by December 2023. The previous Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals were abandoned at the end of last year after Liberal Democrat Councillors in Stockport led the charge to withdraw that authority from the controversial plan. Oldham’s Leader of the Opposition, Liberal Democrat Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, hopes that the leaders of the nine remaining authorities, eight of which are Labour-led and one Conservative, will use this new…
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07Jan 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Part Two of Labour’s Green Belt Homes Plan now expected after 2021 Elections

Borough news
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…
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07Dec 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Stockport Liberal Democrats deal blow to Labour’s Green Belt homes plan

Stockport Liberal Democrats deal blow to Labour’s Green Belt homes plan

Borough news
Last week, at a special meeting of Stockport Council, the 26 strong Liberal Democrat Group, led a charge to vote down the latest Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals in a nail-biting 26 to 35 votes.  The vote at this second meeting followed the request for an adjournment made by the Conservatives and Labour Groups at an earlier meeting to enable the two parties to seek a compromise that would enable the Tories to vote with Labour, but even after talks the Conservatives found the latest modified proposals still unpalatable. The proposals supported by Greater Manchester Labour Mayor and the ten leaders of the Greater Manchester Councils have been opposed by Liberal Democrats across the city region, and the Oldham group has also been at the forefront of local efforts to…
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30Nov 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Liberal Democrats welcome adjournment on Green Belt homes plan debate

Liberal Democrats welcome adjournment on Green Belt homes plan debate

Borough news
The Oldham Council Liberal Democrat Group has welcomed the decision at a full meeting of Oldham Council (25/11/20)to postpone the decision on whether to approve the controversial plan to build housing on the Green Belt. The plan, backed by the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester and Labour Leaders of the Greater Manchester local authorities, would if adopted in Oldham mean 11,817 new homes built in the borough by 2037. Many hundreds of homes would be built on greenfield sites in Shaw and Crompton represented by Liberal Democrat Councillors. Last week, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, wrote to the Leader of the Council asking for an adjournment after councillors in Salford and Stockport failed to reach their own decisions on the plan. Commenting, Councillor Sykes said:…
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20Nov 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Liberal Democrat Leader seeks Oldham delay in deciding on Green Belt homes plan

Borough news
Salford and Stockport Councils have this week postponed their meetings where councillors will decide on whether to adopt the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and the Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has written to the Leader of Oldham Council suggesting it would be wise to do the same. Liberal Democrat Councillors in Stockport were ready and keen to speak against the Labour-led plans at the meeting last Tuesday (17 November), but at the last minute, the Labour, Conservative and Independent Group leaders backed an adjournment for two to three weeks to enable a backroom deal to be made between them. In Salford the Conservatives have called in the plans for further scrutiny before a final decision is made. With these new developments, Councillor Sykes has now written to…
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