Emergency meeting called in Oldham over ‘controversial’ Greater Manchester housing scheme

The Oldham Liberal Democrats have called for an emergency meeting to withdraw the local authority from a ‘controversial’ Greater Manchester housing scheme.

At an extraordinary meeting due to take place on February 12, councillors will vote on whether to write to the Secretary of State to have Oldham removed from Places for Everyone. 

Places for Everyone is a development plan across nine Greater Manchester boroughs, which pledges more than 170,000 new homes across the region – including 11,500 in Oldham.

But opponents have long raised concerns about the use of greenbelt land to fill that quota. 

The request follows a council spat that has rumbled on since August, after a review commissioned by councillors into the consequences of withdrawing from the scheme was rejected by a majority vote in the chambers.

Opponents of PfE believed the vote meant Oldham would be withdrawing from the scheme – but the administration argued that another separate motion would have to be submitted.

Now Lib Dem councillors have done just that.  

Sam Al-Hamdani, deputy leader of the Oldham Lib Dems, told the LDRS: “This has been kicked down the road by the administration for nearly a year. 

“PfE is part of a planning process that hands the keys over to developers and hopes that they will happen to build the houses we want instead of the most profitable ones for them.

"That will never work for people. 

“It’s part of a broken system, and this vote is about making it clear that we want more social housing, we want healthcare and education to be essential to planning, and we want houses in the right places, not on green spaces.”

The Oldham portion of the plan includes land in Beal Valley, Bottom Field Farm, Broadbent Moss, south of Coal Pit Lane, and south of Rosary Road, which are all wholly or partially in greenbelt designated areas.

But Oldham housing lead Elaine Taylor has previously argued that by ‘sacrificing a small portion of the greenbelt’ the PfE scheme is securing ‘tighter protections for the remaining green spaces’. 

Arooj Shah, leader of Oldham council, called the request ‘reckless’.  

The extraordinary meeting will take place immediately after another emergency meeting called by the Conservative group over the CSE inquiry in Oldham.

The decision to hold both meetings on the same day prompted one councillor to anonymously comment to the LDRS: “I’m not sure putting the two most controversial issues into the same evening is a good idea.”

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