A decade-long saga that has dominated Greater Manchester is about to come to an end
07.03.2024 - 07:25
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A ‘10 year’ saga that has dominated Greater Manchester politics is set to finally be resolved. The saga centres around a plan to build 165,000 homes in the region; bring in ‘significant growth’ in the core urban area from Port Salford to the Etihad; address the GM north-south divide in jobs and housing; and support existing ‘economic drivers’ in the south.
The plan was first proposed in 2016 as the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF), and in the years since, its gestation has been anything but smooth. It’s now called Places For Everyone (PfE), reflecting the decision of Stockport council to pull out of the GMSF at a fiery meeting in late 2020.
Even after the local wrangling was over, the new PfE ‘plan of nine’ remaining boroughs was subject to an inspection from the government, which was released last month, on February 14.
READ MORE: 10 key announcements made in Spring Budget 2024 and how they will impact you
Inspectors found PfE ‘provides an appropriate basis for the planning of the districts of Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan’ if a litany of modifications were made. Those have been accepted, and now, each council is adopting the plan.
That process is expected to be complete by March 20, but even then leaders will not be out of the woods. That’s because a ‘legal challenge’ period then comes into play, giving potential objectors until May 2 - the day of the Mayoral election - to make their case against the plan.
But the key message delivered at a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Wednesday (March 6) was that officials ‘feel we are finally getting there now’.
Clare Taylor-Russell, from the GMCA’s principal planning strategy team,