'I will ram it down your throat': Residents react to council leader's bulldozer explosion

Residents opposing a controversial garden village in Tameside have reacted to the council leader saying she would 'ram' the scheme down people's throats.

Labour’s Brenda Warrington hit back at Tories over their opposition to build 2,150 homes on green belt land in Hyde during the fiery meeting on Tuesday.

It comes after two councillors wore protest t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Brenda the Bulldozer’ over her support for the Godley Green garden village.

READ MORE: Labour leader did NOT breach code of conduct when she told opposition 'I will be on that bulldozer

She said: “We want to grow Tameside, we want to have more houses in Tameside.

“And of course those houses will pay council tax and so we’re going to increase our growth agenda.

“Godley Green, I make no mistake, I will be on that first bulldozer and that is a promise.

“I will be on that bulldozer that actually starts to dig up ready to build houses on Godley Green and believe me it will be rammed down your throat. It really will.”

Claire Elliot, a lead campaigner to save the green belt land, said she was 'utterly disgusted at the comments'.

She said: "Her total lack of respect for the green belt and the people that care about it is quite frankly shocking and disgusting.

"Her lack of professionalism is also very apparent. How can we trust these people, who have been placed in a figure of authority and power? To expect them to be unbiased and not be closed minded in the planning process? The answer is we can’t."

Ms Elliot said that residents acknowledge that Coun Warrington inherited the project - but that her comments 'did not sit well' with them.

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She said that the council leader's comments make it sound like