Upcoming meetings to voice your thoughts about the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework

Residents interested in the development and plans put forward to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) have more chances to air their views about the proposals.

A Pennine Township meeting will take place on (Tuesday 29 November) at 6.15pm at Number One Riverside. Agenda item three will discuss the proposals, including the planned development around Junction 21, and four more consultation drop-in dates have been arranged:

Monday 5 December 2016, 3.30pm - 6.30pm, Number One Riverside, Rochdale

Wednesday 7 December 2016, 3.30pm - 6.30pm, Phoenix Centre, Heywood

Thursday 8 December 2016, 3.30pm - 6.30pm, Milnrow Cricket Club, Milnrow

Monday 12 December 2016, 3.30pm - 6.30pm, Middleton Library, Middleton

There is also a meeting on Wednesday 7 December at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester at 10.30am on behalf of the Lancashire branch of Campaign to Protect Rural England.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/106445/campaign-to-protect-rural-england-invites-public-to-discuss-greater-manchester-spatial-framework-plans

The GMSF also includes site ‘allocations’ for sites proposed to be released from the green belt to define a ‘new’ green belt boundary for Greater Manchester. This could see green belt land across Greater Manchester reduce to 43% from the 2015 figure of 47%, despite BBC Radio Manchester reporting yesterday 'nearly 35,000 homes lie empty in the region, with nearly half considered "long-term empty"’.

The sites in the Rochdale borough put forward for public consultation are land in Roch Valley in Smallbridge, Trows Farm in Castleton, land to the north east of Smithy Bridge, Bamford and Norden, and land at Lane End, east of Heywood.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/106035/public-consultation-for-proposed-development-sites-across-the-borough-opens

The GMSF aims to:

• Set out how Greater Manchester should develop over the next two decades up to the year 2035.
• Identify the amount of new development that will come forward across the 10 districts, in terms of housing, offices, and industry and warehousing, and the main areas in which this will be focused.
• Support the delivery of key infrastructure, such as transport and utilities.
• Protect the important environmental assets across the conurbation.
• Allocate sites for employment and housing outside of the urban area.
• Define a new Green Belt boundary for Greater Manchester.

The complete plans can be viewed at https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/GMSF or view them in person at Rochdale Central, Middleton, Heywood and Littleborough libraries.

The public consultation runs until 5pm on 23 December.

All feedback will be made publicly available, considered as part of the spatial strategy document and published in the spring of 2017. AGMA will hold a further public consultation before the final proposals are agreed by members of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Have your say, email:

GMSF@agma.gov.uk

Write to:

Greater Manchester Integrated Support Team, PO Box 532, Town Hall, Manchester M60 2LA