Jackie Copley, Planning Manager explained how national, city-region and local planning policy sits together. CPRE advocates city region scale plans to best strategically plan for transport and other strategic infrastructure. Local authorities will continue to take development decisions based on their adopted local plan, but a city region framework will better inform decisions on issues such as Green Belt. She also updated that CPRE is preparing a response to the Transport for the North Strategic Transport Plan, calling for a focus on integrated, multi-modal transport investment, and less road building in the future.
Senior planning officers, Anne Morgan and Richard Wood from Greater Manchester Combined Authority presented the refreshed evidence base for the GMSF land supply, and on information contained in new brownfield registers, compiled by each of the ten constituent local planning authorities in December 2017. They talked about key issues raised by the public in response to the draft GMSF. The next version of the GMSF is expected at the end of June. CPRE will of course be responding.
CPRE hopes for a much improved GMSF, which focuses needed development on more brownfield land, and listens to more than 23,000 consultees who objected to Green Belt release. CPRE is concerned that without an adopted GMSF developers have more power when seeking to develop land in the countryside. Currently, farmland around the city region is under threat. An adopted GMSF, will help fill a policy void, and will give more power to local planning authorities to resist the development of farmfields. CPRE believes it is important that the public understands this point. CPRE doesn’t want the GMSF to be derailed, but it does expect the significant brownfield resources of Greater Manchester to be brought into play.
To support local people CPRE has developed a Brownfield Register Toolkit, to be publicly available in April. It is currently being tested with local communities and planners to ensure it is fully developed. Its purpose is to help local people check the robustness of the brownfield registers with their respective local authority, when local plans are progressed. In doing this, people can stop preventable development of countryside.
CPRE wants to help people navigate through the various spatial plans to better inform future decision making. CPRE emphasised the importance of community engagement in planning and is committed to supporting a GMSF that best protects and enhances countryside in the future.
Download the linked documents from the day below:
CPRE Lancs GMSF Presentation (PDF)
GMCA Presentation (PDF)
Workshop notes (PDF)
