At tonight’s Extraordinary Meeting of Stockport Council to have the crunch vote on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) the extraordinary happened.
With no prior consultation or advance warning, the Labour Leader of the Council proposed an adjournment of “two to three weeks” to have further behind the scenes discussions to try to cobble together enough votes to save GMSF.
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Mark Hunter, Leader of the Lib Dems at Stockport Town Hall, said: “Once again Labour, propped up by the Tories, have dodged a vote they were going to lose on whether Stockport remains in GMSF or pursues its own Local Plan. GMSF has already been voted on at other Local Authorities and yet their decisions will be meaningless if GMSF is changed.
“Hearing a prepared speech in response by the Tory Leader, it was clear that yet another stitch up has happened, showing nothing but contempt for councillors and, more importantly, for residents who have had the threat to their green spaces hanging over them for years now and thought this would come to an end tonight. There have been many years for them to have these talks and, if they were serious about building a broad coalition rather than a grubby deal, we would have been told in advance what was planned.
“Liberal Democrats remain committed to oppose GMSF because of the continued threat to the Green Belt and we will do so again whenever Labour and the Tories see fit to allow the vote to happen.”
