Plans for new village on green belt land to go out for another consultation

Controversial plans to build more than 2,000 homes in the Hyde countryside are to go out to public consultation for a THIRD time ahead of a potential decision.

Tameside council applied to create the huge Godley Green Garden Village in October 2021, with the target date set for a local decision in the summer before going to government for the final say on whether to release the land from green belt.

Under the garden village plans up to 2,150 homes would be built to the north of Mottram Old Road, as well as ‘local centres’ which would include up to 1,300 sq m of retail, 1,600 sq m of commercial uses and 1,000 sq m of local community uses.

Eventually, proposals for the huge development were scheduled to go before councillors just days before Christmas, at a planning meeting scheduled for December 21.

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But after National Highways extended a holding direction on the proposals until February of this year, the decision was delayed.

The road body wanted more time to review the impact of the development on the strategic road network including the recent government consent for the Mottram Bypass.

Now Tameside council has confirmed the holding direction was extended again until May, pushing the timescale for a decision further down the line.

And it’s been confirmed the application will go to a third round of consultation before it goes in front of the planning committee.

It follows a second round of consultation which took place last autumn after a number of technical surveys and studies around had to be updated as part of the environmental statement.

A spokesperson for Tameside council said: “The council were unable to consider the application as