UPDATED Friday 5 July 2013
News broke today (Thursday 4 July) that development plans put forward by Lib Dem-run Stockport Council include moves to build large houses on land in Reddish Vale Country Park.
A project to build new housing in Brinnington was revealed on Thursday 4th July to contain plans to build on land that is within the boundary of the much-loved Reddish Vale Country Park. It had not been stated in Council reports that the land was within the park until today.
Stockport Labour Group Leader and Reddish South ward councillor, Andy Verdeille, commented:
“We will not allow one inch of Reddish Vale to be built on. Not now, not ever. Now it has been confirmed that the land earmarked for housing by the Council as part of the Brinnington regeneration project is in Reddish Vale, Labour councillors will be at the forefront of the campaign against the plan to build there.
“Reddish Vale is an absolutely vital green lung for local people and it is totally off limits for any development.”
The fear of many residents is that this development, if it goes ahead, would be the ‘thin end of the wedge’ and open up other parts of Reddish Vale to speculative developers.
The Labour Group has a red line when it comes to the idea of building in Reddish Vale – it should never happen.
The ‘Brinnington Regeneration Plan’ seeks to build 292 houses in the local area, none of which will be for social housing.
Thankfully, the Country Park is registered as ‘Green Belt’ land within the Council’s planning guidelines and would have to be reallocated as land for development by the Council for any housing to be built.
Labour councillors will be working with local residents to make the Council see sense and alter the plans so that no development takes place in Reddish Vale Country Park.
The plans for Brinnington have been in circulation for a number of months. However, at no point in the Council’s report is it made clear that the land in question is actually within Reddish Vale Country Park – a shocking omission.
You can read the full report that was approved by the Lib Dem Council Executive in April here. The key bits are Appendix 1 which shows the map of the land and Appendix 2 which fails to state that ‘Site A – Blackberry Lane’ is within Reddish Vale Country Park.
The plans put forward are for private housing on Green Belt land and local Labour councillors had raised concerns about the lack of social housing within the plan. This follows other examples where the Lib Dem Council has decided not to push developers to deliver more ‘affordable’ or social housing on sites such as Bridgehall and Woodford. It does beg the question how serious the Lib Dems are about delivering more social and ‘affordable’ housing.
Stockport needs more social and affordable homes. Sadly, the Brinnington plan does not include any social housing. The Labour Group supports building new homes, but they must be the homes we need and in the right places.
Labour councillors will be calling for the Council to look again at the plans and to remove or relocate the housing that is planned to be built on Reddish Vale Country Park.
Part of the wider ‘Brinnington Regeneration Plan’ includes building a new leisure centre to replace the Lapwing Centre which is planned to be demolished and replaced with housing. The new leisure centre would be built in Brinnington Park – subject to planning changes to allow it. The funding for the new leisure centre is not dependent on the housing that is part of the wider plan being built. The new leisure centre will be funded from money already earmarked in the Council’s Leisure Strategy and from the sale of the former Peel Moat leisure centre site.
Also, residents may be aware of the Council’s plans to move the Castle Hill School to Offerton to create a bigger and better school. Whilst the precise financial information about the funding of this project has been deemed to be confidential by the Council, we can confirm that the funding is not dependent on money from selling off land or selling houses.
The leisure centre and the new school in Offerton are important to the Labour Group and we are pleased that there development is not dependent on selling off part of Reddish Vale Country Park.
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