Commenting on Labour’s claims about the recent postponement of the public consultation on Stockport’s Local Plan, Cllr Mark Hunter, Leader of the Council and of the Liberal Democrat Group, said: “The decision to pause our consultation on the draft Local Plan was taken after considerable thought. Before any decision was taken or announced there was a full discussion at a Group Leaders meeting on Wednesday afternoon, where all Groups on the council were represented.
“Having outlined the increased risks of dramatic policy change in the wake of the current national Tory Party leadership election, there was no dissent from the view that the correct way forward was to pause whilst we await clarity about the level of house building required, specifically the unresolved question of whether the current Local Housing Need figures have any status at all, or whether they are firm targets or just guidelines.
“Are Labour now saying that we should have ploughed ahead and spent £200k on a consultation which could have been rendered obsolete within a few days of launch? That wasn’t their position at the Group Leader meeting, so what has changed since Wednesday?
“The rest of their news release is just an attack piece about the new Liberal Democrat administration running Stockport Council, prepared in advance and then cynically expanded to include the Local Plan. We don’t want to play politics with housebuilding and we do not want to release an acre of Green Belt if this can be avoided.”
