Joint CPRE response to ‘Places for Everyone’ consultation submitted

We welcome the Greater Manchester ‘Places for Everyone’ spatial plan knowing less countryside will be lost to development when a joint development plan covering the nine local planning authorities is adopted to enable sustainable development.

The ambition to be zero carbon by 2038 is laudable given the declared climate emergency.  The amount of proposed land in Green Belt being released for development has been halved since the 2016 version because of the brownfield preference for development, which CPRE recommended.  However, whilst there is considerable policy that is commendable there are still improvements that we seek, including:

• Environmental well-being should be at the heart of the spatial plan to enable good quality places and health for all;
• Improved public transport services supporting rural areas;
• Site allocations that enable justified development, rather than that, which is developer led;
• Jobs and housing focused in sustainable locations based on integrated transport hubs that promote active travel;
• More woodland, trees and hedgerows.
• A clear mechanism for monitoring success against carbon ambitions;

You can download our full response here.

Moving forward we want to better link with the residents’ groups across Greater Manchester to support them in their preparation for the Examination of the ‘Places for Everyone’ Spatial Plan.  Ideally we would have an identified ‘Eyes and Ears’ volunteer in each local area to articulate CPRE’s views on how the policies and allocations can be improved to enable the spatial plan to be adopted. For more details please see our ‘Eyes and Ears’ volunteering page.

The Government’s levelling-up agenda is supported by CPRE, but not at all environmental cost.  We understand the Greater Manchester sub-region needs investment to make up for decades of under-funding, but we want northern deprivation to be targeted in the towns and cities where there is considerable amounts of vacant and underused brownfield land. We want levelling up and countryside protection.  By doing this, our countryside will remain for the benefit of all in the future.