The president of Bury Local Chamber Council, Guy Freeman, examines the local authority's plans for a Local Development Framework. Apart from his position within the Chamber, Mr Freeman is also chairman of the Bury Economic Forum which allows local businesses to discuss issues affecting the borough with senior representatives from the local authority.

He is also managing director of Greenmount-based Freeman Property Solutions which provides a range of building surveying and property management services.

BURY Council is in the process of preparing a new Local Development Framework which will guide development in the borough up to 2021.

Three options are being considered for the future development of the borough. The first option would concentrate on developing the deprived areas of the borough, the second option would encourage development across the borough and the third would develop the south while restricting the north.

As a Chamber we prefer the second option as this would see development spread throughout the borough. This option would seek to ensure all parts of the borough have access to housing and jobs by increasing the provision of employment and housing in all areas. For example, 30 per cent of housing development would be in and around Bury town centre, 30 per cent in Radcliffe and 40 per cent throughout the rest of the borough. Affordable and special needs housing would be promoted.

When it comes to the economy, the second option would increase the proportion of employment land by ten per cent in both the north and the south of the borough. The main focus will be on high quality, knowledge-based growth in and around all town centres. Constraints on existing employment land would be removed while existing employment sites would be retained. It also promises to maintain the vitality and viability of all the borough's six town centres.

The other options do not offer the same development across the borough. The first option would only focus on the borough's most deprived areas. While this is an admirable aim, we believe the whole borough needs to benefit from development, not just one or two areas.

The third option would concentrate growth in the south of the borough while restraining growth in the north. The rationale behind this option is that the south has better and more sustainable transport links than the north. The aim would be to develop the south of the borough as a commuter suburb of the city centre. But Bury should be more than just a dormitory borough supplying labour to the city centre; it should be somewhere people live, work and play. Moreover, I do not like the idea of restraining growth in one part of the borough while encouraging it in another, as this could lead to an unbalanced economy.

The Local Development Framework is a crucial document as it sets out the borough's future for the next 12 to 15 years. It gives us a real chance to tackle Bury's problems and give it a successful future. In my role as chairman of the Bury Economic Forum and as Bury Local Chamber Council president, I am collating local business views in our formal written response to the Bury Council consultation request. Our response must be submitted on or before August 13 and we would welcome any further business views which we could include in our submission.

If you would like to give your view on the three development options for Bury, or suggest a topic for a future column, you can either email me at guy@fpsconsult.co.uk or the Chamber's Bury local manager, Paul Foster, at paul.foster@gmchamber.

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