Creating shared and inclusive prosperity
Hello everyone. Planning isn’t always the most riveting of subjects, but it often has profound implications for the shape of where we live, study and work.
At our cabinet meeting on Wednesday, we’ll be considering two reports that both have the ability to do precisely that.
Firstly – we are drawing up a new Local Plan which will help to determine the shape of the borough for decades to come.
This will sit alongside the already approved Places for Everyone Joint Plan, and used to guide and manage future development and planning applications in Bury.
While PfE identified the main strategic issues, along with specific sites to meet those challenges, Bury’s new Local Plan will provide a more detailed set of locally specific planning policies.
Yes, it will look at housing provision, which is the issue that seems to interest most people. But it’s about much more than that. The Bury Local Plan will also be looking in detail at how we deliver economic growth, new jobs and support our town centres. It will also consider how to promote tourism and culture, sustainable transport, deliver infrastructure, and create healthy and successful communities. And it will assess flood risks, air quality and the environment.
That’s a lot, and we want to hear your views. We’ll be launching an eight-week period of public consultation on 17 March – watch this space for details of how you can take part.
Please remember that this consultation will relate only to the draft Bury Local Plan, and not the Greater Manchester-wide Places for Everyone plan.
Following this, the council will consider all comments received before preparing an updated version of the plan which will be subject to further consultation towards the end of the year. The plan will then be sent to the Government who will appoint an independent Planning Inspector to examine the plan.
The second major planning report to be considered by our cabinet – and soon Rochdale Council’s cabinet - concerns Greater Manchester’s biggest proposed employment development, which will generate more than 20,000 high-quality jobs and bring a £1bn economic boost.
The Northern Gateway is a 1.2m sq m site of employment space on the Bury and Rochdale border close to Junction 19 of the M62.
We will be looking to adopt a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for this area. In short, this SPD will include details about the site, such as the proposed infrastructure, phasing and timescales, the design principles and the benefits it is expected to deliver.
Councillors will also be asked to endorse a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) as the preferred delivery vehicle for Northern Gateway, which is part of the wider Atom Valley Mayoral Development Zone, which aims to create a hub for high tech industries, innovations and economic growth in the North of Greater Manchester.
Make no mistake about it. This gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create thousands of well-paid, highly skilled jobs which will substantially boost the local and regional economy.
We believe in growth; not for its own sake, but for the benefit of future generations and communities, who will need good jobs and skills, decent housing, a quality environment and above all opportunities.
This is the big picture, and your input will be essential in creating a Bury of the future we can all be proud of.