Oldham Council reduces greenbelt allocations and puts brownfield first

Oldham Council has removed more than 1,800 homes from green belt allocations since 2019 and others have been vastly reduced to protect the countryside, on a plan due to be published today, 12 July 2021. 

Additional brownfield sites have been identified to support much-needed homes and employment space as part of its 'residents first' approach to planning on the latest Places for Everyone plan. 

The final draft of the spatial strategy, released ahead of a forthcoming public consultation, sees brownfield sites put first across the borough.

Since the draft plan was published in October 2020, Oldham Council have made further key changes to green belt allocations including:

Hanging Chadder, Royton: this site has been removed from the plan completely meaning 260 proposed homes will not be built.

Land south of Coal Pit Lane: has been reduced from 255 to 175 homes. The site area has been cut by around 6.5 ha to reduce the amount of green belt identified for release.

Chew Brook Vale, Greenfield: has been reduced from 171 to 90 homes with development now only taking place on the brownfield mill site.

Stakehill: Employment floorspace has been reduced by 5,000sqm and a proportion of the site to the south, nearest to existing homes, now remains in the green belt. The Mayor of Greater Manchester and Oldham Council are also seeking to create a Mayoral Enterprise Zone at Stakehill. This will enhance the package of investment and support available for delivering the site.

The changes are in addition to those announced in October 2020, which included the removal of Spinners Way/Alderney Farm and Thornham Old Road sites.

The Woodhouses allocation has also been reduced by 230 homes and Kingsway South has been made a broad location. 

This is so that plans for 518 homes and 180,000 sqm employment land will not proceed and it will remain in the green belt until after 2037 and until a review of Places for Everyone or Oldham’s Local Plan can demonstrate, that its release is fully justified. It is now called High Crompton Broad Location.

                                                       Voices 'listened to'

Cllr Arooj Shah, Oldham Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic and Social Reform, said: “We need to build new homes and help to create more jobs, but this cannot come at the expense of Oldham’s much-loved countryside.

“Communities raised their voices and we have listened - we've removed green belt allocations, scaled them down and refined the proposals again and again taking your feedback on board every step of the way.

“Although we would like to remove them all, there are some green belt allocations still in the plan, because unfortunately there just aren’t enough brownfield sites to meet the borough’s housing need over the next 16 years.

“But we will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure brownfield sites are given priority and lobbying government to support developers to build on previously developed land, so that we can continue to protect our green belt for future generations.”

The Places for Everyone final plan now incorporates eight proposed allocations of land in Oldham: seven housing and one employment site. A small amount of employment land is also proposed at the primarily housing allocation - Broadbent Moss.

Oldham’s ambitions to ensure it is the greenest borough in Greater Manchester, whilst carefully balancing the need for development, will be supported through measures in the plan.

In some locations, land which was previously not in the green belt has now been designated as such because it meets certain tests, such as preventing settlements merging. One proposed site to be added to the green belt is 0.6 ha of land behind Denshaw Village Hall.

Cllr Hannah Roberts, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Less than 20% of the homes Oldham needs to provide will be built within the green belt.

“Without a plan we have no way of saying what land is and isn’t acceptable for development in the future. Without it we have less control over our area and run the risk of places that we want to remain untouched being developed.

"So the plan isn’t just about developing Oldham – but also protecting it"

 

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