SAVE BURY'S GREEN BELT
Developments:
As you are no doubt aware, due to the pandemic the May 2020 Local Elections were postponed for twelve months. Bury Council will now be in place in its current form until May 2021. In May 2020, Dave Jones, the Leader of the Council stood down and Eamonn O’Brien, Councillor for St. Mary’s ward in Prestwich, took his place. The GMSF has been in limbo for a number of months whilst the GMCA produced another draft plan. This is due to be released in October 2020. It is unclear whether the new draft of the GMSF will take into account the economic shock caused by the pandemic. In addition, the longer term effects caused by the pandemic on other factors such as the housing market and immigration are yet to be seen. Housing need is currently still being calculated on the 2014 ONS figures, which are now 6 years out of date, despite the fact that lower ONS figures were calculated in 2016 and lower still in 2018. You would think that a downward trend for housing need and the current uncertain economic climate would influence our Council to argue against the GMSF on the basis that our housing need should be reduced significantly, thus saving our greenbelt? However, despite the above, Bury Council has taken the opportunity of their extended tenure to schedule a vote on the plans on 21st October BEFORE another consultation can take place, with the aim of pushing through approval of the GMSF plans for Bury without further delay. This will be a virtual meeting without any public representation at all.
New Signs Shortly to be arriving in the affected areas:
Below is a pdf containing 19 important points to consider about the GMSF and how the greenbelt could be protected if the correct figures are used.
The below document explains the need to use the correct latest figures for Government Building figures not the 2014 inflated and out of date ones.
19 Points to Save Greenbelt 2020.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [562.8 KB]
Our group had a meeting with Andy Burnham on the 21st May 2019 to discuss the greenbelt loss in Bury following the protest @ Bury town hall.
Please find a downloadable version of the minutes and Summary of the Meeting with Andy Burnham, GMCA Planning & Bury Planning from the 21st May 2019
GMCA-ABurnham-Meeting_Minutes_210619.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [509.3 KB]
PROTEST @ Bury Town Hall
WELL ATTENDED PROTEST - ON 10th APRIL, BURY TOWN HALL
James Daly, the leader of the Conservative group in Bury, put forward a motion regarding the GMSF and protection of the greenbelt to be debated at the Council meeting on Wednesday 10th April. Download the motion below.
To show our support for this motion to protect our greenbelt, we decided to arrange for members of Bury Folk to gather outside the Council Chambers prior to the start of the meeting. However, The Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services at the Council refused to allow the draft motion to be included on the Agenda for the meeting on the basis that it is of a political and sensitive nature and as such cannot be discussed in the pre-election period. To save face, the draft motions proposed for discussion by the other political groups have now also been withdrawn, although we understand that a meeting of the Council will still take place. We're also aware that Andy Burnham will be there at 6pm for a meeting with Rishi Shori.
On another note, one of the members of our Facebook group drafted an e-Petition about renegotiating Bury's position in the GMSF and this was put up on Bury Council's website earlier this week. However, after accumulating numerous signatures, it was taken down by the Council without explanation. Again, we assume that the Council considered the proposals within it to be too controversial.
The protest at the refusal to include the motion on the Agenda and at the restriction of democratic debate on this subject (No questions where allowed by the opposition councillors), however there was a plant in the public galleries who had a staged question about the overall figures for the council leader.
Our chairman managed to get in a counter question on the support of our council to challenge these figures as he was at the closed meeting with the housing minister also. The council leader stated that the council had written to the inspector to explain our situation with little brownfield sites and massive housing requirement, this should allow us to lower the figures and not use the greenbelt for housing. The council need to support this method and not use it as an excuse to develop the greenbelt.
Andy Burnham during the protest offered to meet with members of our committee to discuss the GMSF, thus as he requested we have contacted him on his email and are awaiting a response at this time.
Please show your support for this motion it would if passed put Bury on a path to protect its greenbelt.
April10_Meeting_motion.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [350.6 KB]
PROTEST WALK
Protest Walk:- Sunday 17th March 2019 @ 13:00hrs
From Elton High School
To Elton Reservoir Saling Club
A fantastic turn out estimated at over 700 people attended the protest walk making us proud to be part of this great town. Please Bury council fight for your people we need you to convince the GMCA that Bury simply cannot accept the level of greenbelt loss that is proposed, you have the power to make a difference.
Walshaw Detailed Development Site Image
Elton Detailed Development Site Image
GMSF Download Jan 2019
Link to GMSF Download: https://www.gmcameetings.co.uk/download/meetings/id/4045/6_gm_spatial_framework
2019 GMSF Development Walshaw
2019 GMSF Development Elton
2019 GMSF Development Simister
Download the full Bury Map of 2019 Proposals
Download and view our High Impact posters
Elton_Allocation.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [397.6 KB]
Walshaw_Allocation.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [378.8 KB]
Why is our greenbelt under threat?
Proposals have been made by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to release wide areas of green belt land so that it can be used for development.
How can you help?
JOIN THE FRIENDS OF BURY FOLK AS A MEMBER NOW
CLICK ABOVE TO GO STRAIGHT TO THE MEMBERSHIP PAGE
If you want to show your support for the cause of "Bury Folk Keep it Green" in a practical way, why not become a member of the Friends of Bury Folk?
Please see the Membership page for further details.
Please also see our What can I do? page for other ways you can support the cause.
link to GMSF consultation website
This group is campaigning against the proposals which affect land in Bury, however there are areas all over greater manchester which are affected. Please have a look at the GMSF website under section 28 'Allocations' to see where they all are. There are links to other groups who are campaigning to save these areas on our Contacts page)
Link to Northern Gateway, various allocations around the M62/M66 junction
These first consultation phase on these proposals ended on 16th January 2017. We are waiting to find out what the result of this consultation is, and when the next stage of consultation will be. Now 2nd stage released see the top of this page.
If you are accessing this site on a mobile device please ensure you expand each of the menus to see all the pages
buryfolkagainstgmsf @keepitgreenbelt #saveburysgreenbelt #saveourgreenbelt #GMSF
GMSF final consultation to Start around October 2020 and January 2021
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