Stockport Liberal Democrats

Stockport’s Lib Dem leader Cllr Iain Roberts writes for the Stockport Mail

What do you do when the Government says you’ve got to build 20,000 new homes, and if you don’t come up with a plan they’ll just let developers build pretty much wherever they like? The answer is that you come up with a plan!

The ten councils across Greater Manchester have been working together and they have a plan, but it’s deeply worrying. They propose building thousands of houses on greenbelt land near Heald Green, Cheadle Hulme, Woodford and High Lane.

I say we need to protect our greenbelt.

Stockport is being targeted by developers and, when you add it together with Cheshire East’s housebuilding plans, this would see an area of green fields the size of Heald Green concreted over. All those new houses will mean more cars on our busy roads, more children needing school places, more medical centres, shops and all the rest of it.

What can we do?

We do need more homes for people. Stockport is a popular, growing area to live and we need new homes for our children and grandchildren. But those homes should be built in our towns first.

Before we open up the greenbelt for development we must bring every empty home back into use, develop every old mill building, empty warehouse, factory and derelict piece of land. Only when all that is truly done should we move onto the greenbelt.

And we need to be sure we can deal with the extra traffic and school places. Right now we are being given warm words about how important that infrastructure is. Words are all very well, but we need firm plans and we need the money to deliver them – and they won’t be cheap.

Have your say. Go to the website, www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/gmsf, before the consultation finishes in December. We can get this right. We can build the homes we need without concreting over the greenbelt. But to do it we need some new thinking from both the Government and the Greater Manchester councils, so we have to make our voices heard.

Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Jane Brophy is campaigning to save Greater Manchester’s greenbelt.

Jane Brophy has demanded green spaces in Greater Manchester are protected. She said: “The Government and Greater Manchester Combined Authority must work together to ensure no more houses are built on our precious greenbelt.

“We are destroying our green spaces and depriving our children of the areas to grow and play in.”

Before we open up the greenbelt for development we must bring every empty home back into use, develop every old mill building, empty warehouse, factory, brownfield space and derelict piece of land. Only when all that is truly done should we consider moving onto the greenbelt.

Agree with Jane? Sign and share her petition now!

 

 

The Liberal Democrats are calling on consultancy firm KPMG to hand back £2 million they’ve received for failed work to cut the deficit at Stepping Hill Hospital.

“KPMG were paid more than £2 million to cut Stepping Hill’s deficit to £6 million,” said Cllr Laura Booth. “We now know the extent of their failure. Instead of leaving a £6 million deficit, Stepping Hill will be a massive £15.6 million in the red.”

“It is unacceptable that KPMG are being rewarded for failure. They should hand that £2 million back to the NHS to be spent on treating patients.”

The Liberal Democrats have discovered that KPMG plans to sell off part of the Stepping Hill Hospital site were shelved after they realised it wasn’t worth as much as they thought. Other proposed savings have failed too. KPMG wanted the hospital to lose 350 staff, but just 45 have been offered voluntary redundancy.

“The approach KPMG has taken at Stepping Hill has been amateurish at best, in my opinion,” Laura said. “We want this wasted money repaid and we want to know how KPMG came to be making these decisions for our hospital in the first place.”

Following a report on ITV’s This Morning programme on 2nd November, Liberal Democrats have warned that Stockport residents could soon be paying for private bin collections and having to put up with smells and possible rat infestations if Labour plans for three-weekly bin collections go ahead.

The Labour Group now leading Stockport Council have announced proposals to move to a three-weekly Black Bin collection starting next year in what they describe as a bid to increase recycling rates.

This mirrors the actions of Labour run Bury Council, who were the first in England to move to a three-weekly bin collection back in October 2014, under the guise of increased recycling.

This Morning’s report covered residents in Bury who are choosing to pay over £300 a year on top of their council tax to have their bins collected more often by a private bin collection company. They told of overflowing bins, bad smells and of rat infestations, all brought by the move to three-weekly bin collections.

Speaking of his concerns, Cllr Mark Hunter, Lib Dem shadow spokesperson for waste collection said “This whole scheme is ill thought out and wrong. We do not want to copy councils like Bury who, despite taking this drastic action, still have a recycling rate below 60%. We do not want Stockport residents having to pay additional charges to a private company for a service which they are already paying council tax for. We call on Labour to drop this extremely unpopular plan now.”

The controversial Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, which could allow for development on Green Belt, has now been published for consultation, closing on 23rd December 2016, and Stockport Liberal Democrats are encouraging all residents to participate.

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Mark Hunter has urged local residents not to miss this opportunity to have their say on the plans under consultation, which will shape how houses, offices, industrial and other developments will be delivered over the next 20 years.

The Lib Dems have criticised the consultation process as being unnecessarily complicated but claim it is vital the public make their views known.

Cllr Hunter said “Stockport Liberal Democrats have serious concerns about the proposals contained within the GM Spatial Strategy, particularly the way Stockport appears to be targeted for housing development and what we feel is inappropriate release of Green Belt land for housebuilding in areas where the roads and services are already stretched to breaking point.

“We encourage all residents to participate in the consultation before it closes on 23rd December. Please share this with your friends and family so that they know how to have their voice heard too.”

Submitting your comments
To give your views on the GM Spatial Framework, first you must register as a consultee by completing the form here.

If you have already registered, or if you return to the site to complete your comments over time, remember to use the Login/Register tab each time to log back in (towards the top right of the web page).

To read and comment on the document (once you have registered/logged in) you need to go to the consultation website here.

Down the left side you will see a link to each section of the document, allowing you to make comments on any or all parts as you choose. Each section has a button towards the top right that says “Add Comments” – click on here and type in your comments. Don’t be overwhelmed by this – whilst you are encouraged to give views on the whole Framework you do not have to comment on every single thing, just those things that concern you, for example Housing or Green Belt.

The Government has said that nearly 1,000 new houses and apartments need to be built in Stockport each year for the next twenty years. Under the policies the Government have put in place, not all the brownfield sites in towns can be used, so councils are having to look to greenbelt – a move opposed by the Liberal Democrats.

This is in addition to several thousand new houses Cheshire East Council propose building near Handforth Dean, Wilmslow, Poynton and Knutsford.

Here are the areas of greenbelt proposed to be released for house-building in Stockport borough:

4,000 houses north of High Lane

2,400 new homes in Woodford, in addition to the Aerodrome development

More than 3,700 homes between Cheadle Hulme and Heald Green

Up to 2,000 homes next to the railway line at the southern end of Heald Green

Full details for Greater Manchester are here (warning: 160MB PDF!).