Motion to remove Bury from Places for Everyone rejected

On Wednesday, January 18, the borough Conservatives tabled a motion to the full council meeting urging the ruling Labour party to remove Bury from the Places for Everyone scheme.

Critics of the masterplan say it is the equivalent of creating two new boroughs.

The motion was put forward after Levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, recently said the government is planning to ditch top-down housing targets so councils can decide how many homes they need to build. 

Places for Everyone includes controversial plans at Elton Reservoir and Simister and Bowlee.

But in September the council proposed withdrawing plans for 1,250 homes in Walshaw, saying it would build more housing on urban brownfield sites instead.

At the meeting last week, Bury Tories leader, Cllr Bernstein, said he hoped Labour councillors would accept there was no need to "concrete over our precious green belt".

But the motion to withdraw was dismissed by the ruling party.

Bury Conservatives leader Cllr Russell Bernstein speaking at the council meeting (Image: Bury Council)

Council leader, Cllr Eamonn O'Brien, said that the motion was neither "realistic, accurate nor wise". 

He said: "We are not going to withdraw for a plan in the middle of a consultation based on changes that haven't yet been made, leaving us a risk of a developer free for all."

He added that withdrawing from the plan would "throw 20,000 new jobs onto the fire" and that the Conservative group should apologise for "misleading residents about mandatory targets".

Cllr O'Brien said that the plan is "not perfect" but more than 50 per cent of the entire borough would still be green belt land.

Away from the meeting, Cllr Bernstein has criticised Labour Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, who defected from the Tories in 2019- accusing him of not telling "the people of Simister if he stands with them".   

He said: “It is very revealing that since his attempts to distance himself from the things he said that convinced over 22,000 people to vote Conservative in 2019.

“Christian Wakeford still has to tell the people of Simister if he stands with them or does he now tow the Bury Labour Party doctrine to concrete over the green and pleasant land of the Bury South constituency.”

But in response, Mr Wakeford said his views haven’t changed.

Christian Wakeford (Image: Bury Council)

He said: “I made a promise before I was elected to ensure our green belt wasn’t 'concreted over' and I haven’t changed that view.

“Despite the desperate politicking from Bury Conservatives I have written to the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to ask for the ongoing hearings for Places for Everyone’ which is being heard by the government planning inspectorate will be paused while we await the details of his transitional arrangements which are yet to be disclosed.  

“If public meetings do continue to go ahead, I look forward to speaking at them in due course.”