Bury Local Plan

A Local Plan is a document containing planning policies that are used to guide decisions on planning applications and address the needs and opportunities of the area. Local Plans can also identify where development should take place and areas where development should be restricted.

Local Plans are at the heart of the planning system and are the main consideration in deciding planning applications. They set the framework in which decisions on particular proposals are taken locally. The law makes it clear that decisions on planning applications should be made in accordance with the policies and proposals of the development plan (which will include the Local Plan) unless there are very good reasons not to.

The Government requires all local councils to produce a long-term plan that sets out a positive vision for the future of their area. Plans should provide a framework for addressing housing needs and other economic, social and environmental priorities; and a platform for local people to shape their surroundings. These documents are known as development plans.

Development plans can be in the form of individual or joint Local Plans (produced by authorities working together).

Bury’s current development plan comprises:

• The Places for Everyone Joint Plan;
• The Greater Manchester Joint Minerals Plan;
• The Greater Manchester Joint Waste Plan; and
• The Bury Unitary Development Plan.

Once adopted, Bury’s Local Plan will replace the saved policies in the Unitary Development Plan and will sit alongside the three other adopted plans in forming Bury’s wider development plan.

Yes. The Local Plan must contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and be consistent with the principles and policies in the government’s National Planning Policy Framework.

Whilst there have been updated versions of the NPPF released in 2023 and 2024, the Places for Everyone Joint Plan was examined against the 2021 version of the NPPF. As part two to Places for Everyone, the Local Plan will also be examined against the 2021 version.

Places for Everyone (PfE) is a part one plan that covers nine of the ten Greater Manchester districts (including Bury) and was produced collaboratively by the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the nine local authorities . PfE was adopted in March 2024 and provides the strategic framework within which the participating districts need to develop their own part two Local Plans.

PfE sets out the overall spatial strategy for the nine Greater Manchester districts. Some of the major strategic decisions relating to Bury’s future growth and development have already been made through the PfE Joint Plan. For example, it identifies future needs for housing and employment floorspace, allocates strategic sites to help meet these needs and identifies a revised Green Belt boundary.

The part two Local Plan provides a more detailed set of locally specific planning policies to complement PfE. Given that both documents will be key components of Bury’s development plan, there is clearly a need for consistency between the two.

The draft Local Plan is underpinned by a Strategic Vision of how we think the Borough should be by the end of the plan period together with a set of Strategic Objectives designed to achieve this Vision.

The draft Plan then includes a series of more fine-grained policies that seek to deliver the Vision and Strategic Objectives. These policies are set out in various chapters relating to:

• Adapting to climate change;
• Meeting our housing needs;
• Delivering economic growth;
• Supporting our centres;
• Promoting tourism and culture;
• Creating healthy and successful communities;
• Promoting sustainable transport;
• Conserving the built environment and achieving high quality design;
• Protecting green and blue infrastructure and recreation;
• Protecting the Green Belt;
• Managing water and flood risk;
• Addressing air quality, pollution and hazards;
• Delivering other infrastructure; and
• Development management.

The Local Plan is not allocating any sites for housing or employment development as it is considered that the allocations within the Places for Everyone Joint Plan are sufficient to meet future development needs.

Yes. Once adopted, Bury’s Local Plan policies will replace the saved policies in the Unitary Development Plan and will sit alongside Places for Everyone and the joint Greater Manchester Minerals and Waste Plans in forming Bury’s wider development plan.

The Local Plan sets out a long-term framework to manage future growth and development in the Borough and covers the period of 2022 to 2043.

Plans and strategies such as the Bury Local Plan are required to be subject to a process called Sustainability Appraisal (SA), which assesses the likely effects of a plan on social, economic and environmental issues.

The Local Plan is supported by a broader Integrated Assessment that includes SA but also considers the topics of equalities (via an integrated Equalities Impact Assessment) and health (via an integrated Health Impact Assessment).

Only when the Local Plan is adopted will it become part of the Borough’s statutory development plan and carry full weight in the determination of planning applications.

In its current draft form, the Local Plan will carry limited weight but that weight will increase as the Plan progresses through the process.

Like all the Greater Manchester local authorities, Bury Council has declared a climate emergency and set a target to be carbon neutral by 2038. Adopted in 2021, the Council has developed a strategy for achieving carbon neutrality by 2038 and policies in this Local Plan as well as the Places for Everyone Joint Plan include measures that will support ambitions for Greater Manchester to be carbon neutral by 2038 and for all new development to be zero net carbon in operation by 2028.

Through the Local Plan we will seek to address climate change with a positive approach towards renewable and low carbon energy, flood risk, green infrastructure, design, air quality and transport infrastructure whilst assessing the location of development in relation to public transport and accessibility amongst other factors.

Some of the key local issues for housing include the need to plan to meet the needs of a growing and ageing population by ensuring the provision of an adequate supply of appropriate and affordable housing in the right locations and ensuring that development makes an efficient use of land. It is also vital to ensure that new residential development responds to the climate emergency and supports the transition to a low carbon future in a changing climate.

In response to these issues the Local Plan, alongside Places for Everyone, seeks to deliver an appropriate supply of well-designed housing to meet the Borough’s needs by:

• Ensuring that an appropriate mix of dwellings will be delivered over the plan period to address the housing needs of the local community;
• Requiring all developments that provide 10 or more net additional dwellings to deliver affordable housing;
• Seeking to secure a broad range of housing choices for older people and people with disabilities;
• Supporting appropriate residential development for looked after children and care leavers;
• Seeking appropriate provision of serviced plots for sale to self-build and custom housebuilders within large housing developments;
• Seeking to meet the needs of Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople, on appropriate sites;
• Supporting appropriate applications for house alterations and extensions;
• Supporting appropriate applications for residential conversions; and
• Managing applications for the conversion of buildings into houses of multiple occupation and the development of new houses in multiple occupation.

The Local Plan seeks to assist in the delivery of a competitive and diverse local economy and high-quality jobs in a way that does not compromise carbon targets.

It will seek to achieve this by:

• ensuring that Bury makes a sufficient contribution to meeting the overall employment requirements identified in the Places for Everyone Joint Plan;
• encouraging business, industrial and warehousing and office development within the Borough’s established employment areas and other suitable locations; and
• protecting existing suitable employment areas and sites.

Town centres are locations that sit at the heart of our communities. The vitality of town centres is largely underpinned by retail activity but recent years have seen significant challenges to this sector, particularly with the impacts of rapidly changing shopping patterns which have been escalated by the pandemic. In turn, this has presented a significant challenge to the Borough’s hierarchy of centres.

The key aim of the Local Plan is to support and enhance the vitality of the Borough’s hierarchy of centres. This includes adopting the ‘town centres first’ approach to proposals for main town centre uses but to also allow centres to grow and diversify in a way that can adapt to rapid changes in the retail and leisure industries by promoting a suitable mix of uses, including additional housing to encourage increased town centre living.

In order to support the vitality and resilience of these town centres and to ensure that they adapt and evolve, the redevelopment of town centre regeneration opportunities is promoted through the Local Plan.

Tourism and cultural activity make a significant contribution towards the competitiveness and diversity of the local economy and in improving the attractiveness and quality of life within the Borough.

As such, the Local Plan endeavours to support and develop the Borough’s tourism and cultural offer by seeking to safeguard existing and capitalise on opportunities for additional tourism and cultural assets as well as facilities that support the tourism and cultural sector, such as restaurants and visitor accommodation. In doing so, the Local Plan will seek to ensure that the role of this sector is strengthened and can continue to grow.

The Local Plan seeks to ensure that new development makes a positive contribution towards social value and equality, does not have adverse effects on health and that the Borough’s residents have access to good quality education and community facilities. It seeks to achieve this by:

• Ensuring that development is located, designed, constructed and operated in a way that maximises its social value and equality benefits to Bury’s communities;
• Ensuring that new development makes a positive contribution towards the health and wellbeing of the Borough’s communities;
• Requiring developers of new housing to make provision for the educational needs arising from the development; and
• Resisting proposals that would result in the loss of sites and premises currently or last used for the provision of community facilities or services unless the facility is no longer needed or replacement provision is made.

The Local Plan seeks to deliver attractive sustainable transport choices in new developments and reduce the number and length of journeys, particularly by private motor vehicles by:

• Promoting sustainable transport across the Borough by encouraging a modal shift towards more sustainable modes of travel, such as walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport;
• Supporting improvements to the Borough’s public transport network and facilities;
• Supporting schemes for new and improved travel hubs where it can be demonstrated that they form part of a wider strategy for increasing the use of public transport and active travel;
• Seeking to ensure that the Borough’s highway network operates efficiently, effectively and safely;
• Requiring all development to make adequate provision for parking and servicing; and
• Supporting the continued development of a network of safe and conveniently located electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the Borough.

The Local Plan seeks to positively manage the conservation and enjoyment of the Borough’s built heritage assets such as Conservation Areas, Listed Buildings, Scheduled Monuments, archaeological features and local non-designated heritage assets.

It will also require all new development to display high standards of design and layout and support innovative design solutions where this would make a positive contribution to the nature and character of an area and will ensure that new development does not lead to unacceptable adverse impacts on the amenity of the surrounding area or users and occupants of the development.

In addition, the Local Plan will support proposals that lead to the regeneration of the built environment where this is in need of environmental improvement.

The Local Plan seeks to conserve and enhance the Borough’s natural environment and seek to ensure that the Borough’s residents have access to a sufficient amount of good quality open space, sport and recreation facilities by:

• Protecting and enhancing a network of multi-functional green and blue infrastructure and supporting proposals to improve the connectivity and quality of the network;
• Retaining an adequate supply of good quality and accessible open space, sport and recreational assets;
• Requiring developers of 10 or more dwellings to make provision for new or enhanced open space, sport and recreation to meet the needs of the prospective residents;
• Seeking to establish a network of designated recreational routes to provide access for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders;
• Seeking to ensure that proposals for new development minimise impacts on the Borough’s biodiversity assets;
• Requiring development to provide measurable net gains for biodiversity of no less than 10%;
• Requiring development that is sited within or adjacent to the Local Nature Recovery Network to enhance and protect the integrity of the network;
• Recognising that trees, woodland and hedgerows bring multiple benefits, including providing valuable wildlife habitats and increasing resilience to climate change;
• Seeking to ensure that proposals for new development minimise impacts on the Borough’s geological and geomorphological assets; and
• Considering the impact of development on soil assets.

In order to meet identified development needs, the Places for Everyone Joint Plan altered the Green Belt boundaries across the plan area and any proposals for development within the Green Belt will be considered within the context of relevant policies in the NPPF, the Places for Everyone Joint Plan.

Furthermore, the Local Plan will seek to control development in the Green Belt by:

• Supporting appropriate and limited infilling within the Borough’s village settlements of Shuttleworth, Holcombe, Hawkshaw, Summerseat, Affetside, Nangreaves, Ainsworth and Simister;
• Managing the conversion and re-use of buildings in the Green Belt;
• Managing proposals for new dwellings to support agricultural, forestry and other occupational dwellings associated with activities acceptable in the Green Belt;
• Managing proposals for agricultural diversification within the Green Belt; and
• Managing proposals for equestrian development in the Green Belt.

The Local Plan seeks to manage flood risk from all sources by directing development away from areas of flood risk, ensuring it is well protected from flood risk and does not contribute to increased flood risk elsewhere. It also seeks to deliver improvements to water quality to provide a better quality environment for biodiversity and the incorporation of measures for the conservation of water. In particular, the Local Plan will seek to achieve this by:

• Ensuring development avoids locations of highest existing or future flood risk;
• Requiring all applications to be supported by a strategy for surface and foul water management;
• Managing the potential impact of development on water resources;
• Requiring all new development to incorporate water efficiency measures;
• Requiring applicants for development on land used for public water supply catchment purposes to consult with the relevant water undertaker; and
• Requiring applications for new development near to existing or future wastewater treatment works, pumping stations or other wastewater infrastructure to consider potential adverse impacts on the amenity of the prospective occupiers.

The NPPF states that planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment and that this should include preventing new and existing development from contributing to, being put at unacceptable risk from, or being adversely affected by, unacceptable levels of soil, air, water or noise pollution or land instability. It also states that this should involve remediating and mitigating despoiled, degraded, derelict, contaminated and unstable land.

The Local Plan has a role to play in ensuring that development does not lead to or be at risk from unacceptable levels of pollution and hazard by:

• Preventing both new and existing development from contributing to, or being adversely affected by, unacceptable levels of pollution and poor air quality;
• Requiring the submission of an appropriate contamination and/or land instability risk assessment for development which may affect or be affected by contamination or land instability due to its previous history, geology, or proposed use;
• Controlling applications for hazardous substances consent, and developments involving the use of hazardous substances; and
• Controlling development near hazardous installations where it would result in an unacceptable increase in the risk or consequences of a major accident.

Wireless technology continues to evolve rapidly, and mobile devices are now capable of much more. 5G, the latest generation of wireless technology, is much faster than previous generations of wireless technology and can offer greater capacity and lower latency, allowing thousands of devices in a small area to be connected at the same time. The standards for next generation 6G mobile are currently being agreed internationally ready for likely roll out by 2030.

The Local Plan will seek to support the development of wireless technology by supporting and managing the provision of enhanced, competitive full fibre, mobile and wireless electronic communications infrastructure and by avoiding adverse impacts on the successful functioning of existing digital infrastructure.

We sought views on the draft Local Plan over an eight-week period between March and May 2025. 

No. Places for Everyone (and the sites allocated within it) was adopted by each of the nine participating districts in March 2024.

As such, the sites allocated at the Northern Gateway (JPA1.1 and JPA1.2); Elton Reservoir (JPA7); Seedfield (JPA8) and Walshaw (JPA9) are no longer designated as Green Belt and the principle of development on these sites has been established.

These sites do not form part of the Local Plan and any comments on them cannot be considered through the Local Plan process.

We will give thorough consideration to all relevant comments submitted in response to consultation on the draft Local Plan.

Where necessary, we will feed these comments into the next Publication version of the Plan.

No. An Inspector will only consider comments made in response to consultation on the Publication version of the Local Plan.

Comments on the draft Local Plan will be considered by the Council and, where necessary, the Plan will be amended before proceeding to the Publication version.

If you wish your views to be considered by an Inspector as part of their examination of the Local Plan, it is important that you also comment at the Publication stage.

We will give thorough consideration to all relevant comments submitted in response to consultation on the draft Local Plan.

Where necessary, we will feed these comments into the next Publication version of the Plan.

There will then be further consultation on the Publication version of the Local Plan before this, together with any representations made on the Publication Plan and supporting evidence, will be submitted to the Government.

The Government will then appoint an Independent Planning Inspector to examine whether the Local Plan is ‘sound’ and legally compliant and this examination is likely to involve hearing sessions.

The Inspector will then issue a report setting out their findings as to whether the Local Plan is legally compliant and sound (or is capable of being sound subject to modifications).

If the Plan is legally compliant and sound (or is capable of being sound), the Council would then proceed to adopt the Local Plan as part of Bury’s statutory development plan.

If you want to stay informed about all aspects of the Bury Local Plan you can register your interest by completing our online form at the end of this page. We'll contact you at all key stages of the plan so you can always make your views known. You'll need an email address to register online and you can unsubscribe from the service at any time by emailing your details to planning.policy@bury.gov.uk or calling 0161 253 7800. If you haven't got an email address, you can opt to receive postal updates by calling us.