The Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has submitted a strongly-worded letter of objection on behalf of the Oldham Liberal Democrat Group outlining why the revised Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals still remain ‘a massive and inequitable land grab’ in Crompton, Shaw and Royton (deadline for submissions was the 18 March).

These proposals will result in the devastation of local Green Belt and Other Protected Open Land Sites for housing development being ‘completely unacceptable’.

Councillor Sykes said: “The Liberal Democrat position remains clear and unequivocal.  We want to see all new housing developments built on brownfield sites or on existing sites with planning permission for housing, or through bringing existing empty homes back into use, or the conversion of empty mills, offices and factories into dwellings.  We are implacably opposed to any building on any of our irreplaceable Green Belt or on our Protected Open Land sites until all this has been done.”

“I also want to see our Greater Manchester Council leaders and the Mayor lobbying government hard to reduce the housing figures to match the most recent growth projections from 2016 – that would mean 50,000 less houses to build – and I want to see them fight for more money from the Treasury to enable us to remediate our Brownfield sites to make them ready for housing development.”