'We don't need to do it - it's a betrayal of future generations'

Campaigners have launched a legal challenge to prevent vast areas of green belt land in Greater Manchester being swallowed up for development. One of the leaders of the Save Greater Manchester Greenbelt group (SGMG) has described the ‘take’ of 34 areas of green belt in the Places for Everyone (PfE) strategic plan, which outlines planning objectives for the next 17 years, as a ‘betrayal of future generations’.

SGMG has engaged barristers from law firm Leigh Day and submitted a request for a judicial review of the PfE, now ratified by nine participating Greater Manchester boroughs with only Stockport opting out. Legal papers were sent to the nine authorities, Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority on April 30.

Vice-chair of SGMG, Marj Powner, said a response to the claim was expected from the authorities by May 24. She said: “Even without releasing any green belt sites, there is sufficient brownfield land supply to create two new boroughs. Given that level of growth, we don’t believe that it’s necessary and it’s a betrayal of future generations.”

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Ms Powner acknowledged that the amount of green belt set to be taken under PfE had been reduced by 50 per cent during the long drawn out consultations over the plan, but said in fact it should be ‘zero’. She continued: “If you’ve got 170,000 homes on brownfield (the PfE target), that’s the equivalent of an increased population of more than 400,000 people.

“If we’re going to increase the population of Greater Manchester by 400,000 - the equivalent of creating two new boroughs - why do we