Author: stockportlibdems

Cllr Mark Hunter has written the below in response to an open letter from the Conservative Councillor on Stockport Council:

Cllr Crossen,

Thank you for your email. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that you choose to ignore reality whilst writing a letter clearly intended more for voters’ eyes than for mine.

As you should be well aware, Stockport councillors – including Conservative councillors who have since lost their seats – voted to leave the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework at the end of 2020, with a view to protecting our Green Belt. It was the right decision.

That was under a local Labour administration that did not then do enough to draft and adopt a Local Plan, and they left it to the Liberal Democrats to pick up the pieces when we regained minority control of the council three years ago, at the end of May 2022. Since that time we have taken and continue to take senior legal advice at each stage on the most appropriate way forwards.

You will recall that the summer of 2022 was particularly special for the Conservative party. Boris Johnson had to resign as Prime Minister, Liz Truss briefly replaced him, crashed our economy and was eventually replaced in turn by Rishi Sunak.

During that chaotic time there was much speculation during the leadership campaigns about changing the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and about making the then compulsory housing targets only advisory. As this change would enable us follow through on our ambition to protect our precious Green Belt, the new Cabinet under my leadership took the decision to pause work, avoiding an expensive consultation on a Local Plan that might be out of date before the consultation was complete. This saved our hard-pressed Council Tax payers around £0.25m according to an official estimate. The Conservative government confirmed at the end of 2022 that this would happen, and a new NPPF was expected to be published in the Spring of 2023.

Sadly, Michael Gove as Secretary of State chose instead to take a year to issue a revised NPPF, and it was late December 2023 before this was published. We re-commenced work immediately under this new guidance and, despite being forced to pause announcements due to the pre-election periods for the Local Elections and then General Election in 2024, we did publish a draft Local Plan back in July 2024.

It can be found here:

Agenda for Cabinet on Friday, 19th July, 2024, 12.00 pm – Stockport Council

This focussed on Brownfield first development, protecting our Green Belt as we have always aimed.

Shortly after publishing that draft Local Plan, the new Labour government announced the planning rules would be altered again, entirely changing the game with their 10 million homes housing ambition and strictly enforced, compulsory housing targets. We were forced to wait for yet another update to the NPPF by central government.

Our Local Development Scheme was published within days of Labour finally issuing the updated National Planning Policy Framework, showing how we would deliver a Local Plan to the government’s deadline. A key matter remained unresolved, however – what did the compulsory targets mean in places like Stockport where such huge housing numbers could only be delivered through the release of Green Belt. This would apparently involving a new classification of land called “Grey Belt”. All Local Plans under the previous rules not yet at Regulation 19 Consultation were to be abandoned and the new rules used instead.

Sadly, but unsurprisingly given our experience to date, the government then delayed issuing the clarity and guidance on Grey Belt/Green Belt for months. When it eventually came, the guidance was completely out of line with what the planning community had expected. Our consultants are currently working through what this means for Stockport. This government delay will have a knock on to all councils and their preparation of Local Plans.

We continue to urgently progress our Local Plan but it will now be even more difficult protect the Green Belt our residents rightly cherish. Overnight, Angela Rayner’s compulsory housing target removed our ability to defend such land from the clutches of developers who are intent on concreting over it, in the pursuit of profit.

Labour’s new rules will make it much easier for them to build there. Unlike the draft Local Plan the Lib Dems published last summer, which would have built the right homes in the right places, but which we were blocked from progressing.

I hope this clarifies the fact that the Liberal Democrats have not been dragging our heels, on the contrary we have been keen to make progress and have been repeatedly frustrated by changes in government policy.

We hope you will join our calls to government to overturn the approach taken by both the current Labour government and its Conservative predecessors, who have given all of the power to developers whilst tying councils’ hands behind their backs at the expense of our valuable Green Belt.

Following Cllr Mark Hunter’s decision to step aside as Leader of Stockport Council at the Annual Meeting on 20th May, the Liberal Democrat Group have elected a new leadership team who will become the Group’s nominees to be Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council from that meeting.

Cllr Mark Roberts, currently Deputy Leader of the Council and of the Lib Dem Group, has been elected as Group Leader.

He lives in Romiley with his wife Cllr Frankie Singleton, who he met while they were both on the campaign trail, and they married at Stockport Town Hall in 2023. He grew up in the Peak District and like many others chose to make Stockport his home. He has recently taken up beekeeping and loves working outside in the local countryside.

First elected in 2019 after seeing the inspirational work of his then councillors Lisa Smart and Angie Clark, Mark rose quickly through the ranks of the Group, taking on more responsibility and positions of leadership. He has been instrumental in pushing the council to be more sustainable, building in climate resilience, and has been leading on the work to deliver a Local Plan in the aftermath of the Labour government’s recent doubling of Stockport’s house building requirements.

Cllr Jilly Julian, currently Cabinet Member with responsibilities including finance and governance, has led on delivering a balanced budget and on the council’s overarching priority of tackling inequalities.

First elected as a councillor in 2021, Jilly lives with her husband, Chris, and their two children in Cheadle.

Not born here but “drawn” here, she saw the light and moved to the borough from Yorkshire almost 20 years ago. Outside of politics, Jilly is a self-employed coach and facilitator, and is a trustee of the local charity, Signpost Stockport for Carers. She loves weight training, heavy metal music, and crochet, when there’s a calm moment.

Speaking after his election as Group Leader, Cllr Roberts said: “It an honour and a privilege to serve my community and I am humbled to be able to build on that. I have been chosen to lead an inspirational bunch of local champions as leader of the Liberal Democrats across Stockport and will make our case to continue the administration of the council moving forward, building on the legacy of Cllr Hunter.

“Stockport is a great place to live, work and play but we have to do more to ensure that positive impact is felt across Stockport in all our communities. I am clear that comes from getting more Liberal Democrats who stand up for their residents elected and showing that when you vote Lib Dem you get local action.

“I couldn’t be happier that in my Deputy Leader I will be supported by my inspirational friend and colleague, Cllr Jilly Julian, who has guided the borough through the catastrophic lack of government funding. She has demonstrated herself to be a rational, safe pair of hands in a political landscape with considerable challenge.”

Having been elected as Group Deputy Leader, Cllr Julian added: “I became politically active a decade ago, because I felt that humanity and common sense had vanished from government. Now, ten years later, we need compassion and reason more than ever at every level of politics. So I’m incredibly proud to have been chosen for this role by the group. I know that Cllr Roberts will be a fantastic Group Leader, and am really happy to be supporting him and working together towards a thriving, fair, and ambitious future for Stockport!

“From housing to healthcare and beyond, we face huge challenges. But ‘do summat’ has become our family motto, and as Deputy Leader, I’m excited and proud to be able to make a difference.”

Cllr Mark Hunter, retiring Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said: “I am delighted that two such capable colleagues have taken over the mantle of leadership from me. I know the Group is in good hands with them and that they will always put our borough first.

“I look forward to giving them both my full support from the backbenches once I am replaced as Leader of the Council on 20th May.”

Stockport Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Mark Hunter, has announced he will step back from his position as group leader and Leader of the Council at the group’s AGM in May – though he will continue as a councillor for his home ward of Cheadle Hulme South.

Mark became leader of Stockport Council in 2022 when the Liberal Democrats again became the largest party at the Town Hall – just one seat short of an overall majority. He was previously leader 2002-2005, before being elected as Member of Parliament for Cheadle, a constituency he represented for 10 years. He remains the only person to have led Stockport Council on two separate occasions.

First elected as a Tameside councillor in 1980 at just 22, Mark served for nine years before moving to Stockport with his family in 1990. He won a seat on Stockport Council in 1996 representing Marple North Ward and became leader in 2002. Following the sad death of Patsy Calton in 2005, he was selected as parliamentary candidate for Cheadle and entered Westminster after a by-election in July.

Mark said

“It has been a privilege to lead Stockport council at such an exciting time with our district centres thriving, the town centre’s transformation continuing at pace, and Stockport recognised as the best place to live in the North West by The Sunday Times in 2024.

“After careful consideration, I have decided that this is the right time for me to pass on responsibility for leading the Liberal Democrat group and the Council to the next generation. Stockport is in a great position to continue moving forward. With our vision, drive and ambition we are well set for future success. I would like to thank all my colleagues, and the members and officers who work tirelessly to ensure our borough has such a well-run local authority. Working together, we have achieved a great deal but much more remains to be done.

“With a career in public service stretching back 45 years, it is time for me to consider what I want to do next. With two grandchildren already, I will not be short of things to do, and I remain open to new opportunities in public life where my experience may be of benefit. It’s the start of a new chapter for me personally and I am very much looking forward to the future.”

Deputy Leader of Stockport Council, Cllr Mark Roberts, has spoken out at the latest guidance from the government over the latest legal guidance over the newly coined term ‘grey belt’. The new classification will require councils across the country to reassess their Green Belt land and force them to release much of it for development to meet Labour’s massively increased housing targets.

“With this developers’ charter to concrete over the Green Belt, Labour have decided to simply rename much-valued Green Belt as the ‘grey belt’ and hope that residents will shrug their shoulders. It isn’t just previously developed land, as they had originally promised.

“The Labour government are so hell-bent on concreting over our green spaces that they are even proposing changes to the statutory consultees for planning. This includes removing Sport England from the list, who have consistently advocated for the protection of our open spaces where sports are played, despite us facing a national obesity crisis.

“Our greenspaces give us a huge improvement to our quality of life, as well as critical ecological benefits, regardless of what a London-based Labour government arbitrarily decides should be its label.”

The guidance was given as an update to the government’s National Planning Policy Framework. Councils expected the clarification to be given late last year, it was then promised in January but it still didn’t arrive until two months later, leaving far less time now to draw up our Local Plan.

“Labour’s heavy-handed approach to planning has caused chaos in councils up and down the country, alongside joy in the offices of developers. We have now been forced to rip up the plan we devised last summer because the government has doubled our housing target and tied our hands behind our back. They have completely changed the game. It is sad to see that Labour have fallen into the same trap as the previous Conservative government – they now sit squarely on the side of developers, not residents.

“Our draft Local Plan was a brownfield first solution that would have built the much-needed homes where they were needed in Stockport. Labour have cast that aside and are instead trying to give developers free reign to build on the most profitable land available. This means green spaces will be bulldozed, whereas the eyesores that are brownfield sites will remain untouched for generations. They have disregarded local voices and rigged the game in favour of developers. They have called their planning work a ‘comprehensive modernisation of Green Belt’, but it feels more like a national review and contraction of Green Belt by the back door.”