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Now is the Time – to contact your Councillors and MP

The next draft of the GMSF plan to decimate local Green Belt is about to be published.

The template letter/email below is there for you to send to your local Ward Councillors.
I believe shows them the strength of local feeling about saving the Green Belt from development.But before you send anything, please make sure:

  1. the Councillors names are correct as some of you are not in the Castleton Ward but in North Middleton. If that’s the case then your Councillors are Kallum Nolan, Sara Rowbotham and Donna Williams.
  2. Add your name and address at the end.
Councillors-re-GMSF-consultation-Nov20Download

There is also a second template for you to send to our MP, Chris Clarkson, urging him to act in support of this matter.Again, add your name and address at the end.

MP-re-GMSF-consultation-Nov20Download

And here’s is a list of email and postal addresses for all the Councillors and MP for your convenience.

Ward-Councillors-and-MP-detailsDownload

Of course, you don’t have to use these templates. You can send them in your own words

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Rochdale Rail Corridor Strategy

Rochdale Council have published (May 2020) the “Rochdale Rail Corridor Strategy” (RRCS).

The RRCS includes a proposal for a new rail station at Slattocks along with developments around current stations along the Calder Valley line at Castleton, Rochdale, Smithy Bridge and Littleborough.

It also mentions linking the East Lancs Railway (ELR) to the mainline at Castleton.
The ELR is the heritage ‘steam’ line that currently runs from Heywood to Rawtenstall.

Click this link to see the Rochdale_Corridor_Strategy.pdf

The document shows 400 and 800 metre perimeters around the rail stations but fails to explain what these mean.

The Rail Strategy doesn’t mention the GMSF
or the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Strategy 2040

When lockdown conditions are eased we’ll meet with our local Councillors & MPs about the Rail Strategy and other issues affecting the area to try to convince them that development via a Brownfield First policy is the best way to properly protect the Green Belt.

What do you think?

Leave your comment in the box below

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The Lockdown & GMSF low down

Hello to everyone hope you’re all fit & well and staying safe.

We’re continuing to develop our TSJ neighbourhood plan for the area and have applied for grant funding so we can engage a planning consultant to help pull the plan together.

We will soon be out and about again putting up signs and banners to remind people how precious the green belt is to all of us.
Please let us know if you’d like one of the signs on your property. Just email info@tsjnf.org

We are doing all this in preparation
for the next GMSF consultation
which will probably be in Autumn this year.

However, GM Mayor Andy Burnham has said that due to COVID-19 the plan will now be amended.
This is what he’s said in a recent press conference (3rd June 2020) about the GMSF plan:

“It’s being reviewed…. The economy is going to face a challenging period and that will have an implication for the GMSF, particularly its five year delivery plan. Equally, there may be more opportunity for houses to be built in areas where the high street could be hit by the downturn…”

On the face of it, this looks like good news in terms of protecting Green Belt from development, but it’s far from clear that it actually means that.

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Developer REDROW show their plans for GM2-Stakehill*

Redrow Homes has produced a glossy PR document as part of their comments to the recent GMSF Consultation (Jan-Mar 2019).
The indicative masterplan for what they call the ‘Manchester Road Development’ uses information from the GMSF documentation to show how they might develop the site.
Showing the All In One Garden Centre as its way in from the main road, they demonstrate how they could use the whole area behind Thornham Cricket Club and St John’s Thornham Church, stretching to Thornham New Road, the M62, and A627M.

At this stage of the GMSF plan, Redrow have decided its time to show their hand and how serious they are in wanting to got hold of this large chunk of local Greenbelt.

Whoever wrote this Development Statement
obviously used online and out of date information
and probably didn’t set foot in Slattocks

There are lots of error and mistakes. We’ll leave you to spot them.

MAP_Redrow-Plan-GM2-StakehillDownload
Redrow-Plan-GM2-StakehillDownload
  • The whole of the Redrow document, showing other sites across Greater Manchester they wish to develop can be found on the GMCA website
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From small beginnings

27,000 people commented on the first draft of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework [GMSF].

Following this the local community came together to form SOS-Save Our Slattocks and joined other local residents from across Greater Manchester to rally at Manchester Town Hall.

 Since then we’ve looked at how best we can influence local planning and consequently formed the Thornham St John’s Neighbourhood Forum

Here’s a video reminder of our ‘roots’