Protecting Standish's Green spaces

Planning decisions are based on national and local planning policies. Over recent years, these have both allowed an inordinate amount of housing to be permitted across Standish. Whilst we can't click our fingers and change these, Adam and Ray have been busy at the Town Hall trying to make sure Wigan Council fix the holes in local and regional planning policies.

Wigan Council's Local Plan, which was approved in 2013, specified a number of sites as 'safeguarded land' in Standish. This meant that significant swathes of land were due to be built on. However, housebuilding has gone further than what was envisaged in this plan, as the council lost several appeals to developments.

Our main priority at the Town Hall is to make sure that the grounds for the successful appeals were rectified in future local and regional policies.

Under the National Planning Policy Framework, where a local authority does not meet the quota set out in their local plan, their plan can be deemed 'out of date' and large parts of it set aside. This is what happened with some of the applications in Standish. Wigan Council had set a target to build 1000 houses per year from 2013 to 2026. However, shortly after the plan came into effect Wigan Council began missing the target. Therefore, developers were able to successfully argue that the provisions in the local plan limiting the number of houses in Standish were 'out of date' and could be set aside. Wigan Council is now meeting its housing target, but, sadly, it's too late for many of the green spaces that have received planning permission in Standish.

We have taken several actions to try and stop this in the future:

We supported the creation of the Standish Neighbourhood Plan

The Neighbourhood Plan created by Standish Voice includes policies that restrict the excessive building in Standish, especially on our green spaces. What's more, for a limited period of time from it coming into effect a Neighbourhood Plan can not be regarding as being 'out of date' even if Wigan Council were not to hit its own housebuilding target.

We're arguing for the council to adopt the lowest housing target

The housing target for Wigan Borough is likely not going to be set by Wigan Council itself in future. Instead, Wigan Council has opted to join with 8 other authorities in Greater Manchester to develop a joint spatial plan which will include a target for housebuilding for Wigan Borough. This is the replacement of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF), which collapsed after Stockport Council pulled out. However, it's likely going to be a carbon copy of the GMSF.

In the latest version of the GMSF before it was pulled, Wigan Council had agreed to a housing target of over 100 houses per year above what the Government's formula said it should be. This is because Wigan Borough will take on some of houses which needed to be built in other boroughs across Greater Manchester.

We are strongly campaigning against this, as we have seen above how setting the target too high can lead to disastrous consequences for areas like Standish.

Maintaining and Expanding the Greenbelt

The Green Belt is a specific planning designation, so not every green field or green space is in the Green Belt. Although, the Green Belt tends to include green spaces and green fields. We have a lot of Green Belt in Standish, and we have not only managed to secure the existing Green Belt in the GMSF, but there will actually be a gross increase in the Green Belt. Although, we are making representations about where the additions to Standish's Green Belt should be located.

We have fought against every single development proposed in Standish. As you can see from the table above, since Standish first elected a Conservative Councillor in 2016, approvals have nosedived - but not for a lack of areas developers want to build on.

Even before Ray or Adam were elected, Standish Conservatives were campaigning with local residents against the building of these developments.

One recent success story where Adam and Ray were able to help stop a development was for 86 homes just off Robin Hill Lane. They were able to engage the developer early on and provide arguments, based on policies in the Neighbourhood Plan, against them developing in Standish. This specific developer has since withdrawn their plans to develop this site.

Conservative Councillors have argued that the council should consult councillors and Neighbourhood Forums early on when they are approached by developers for pre-application advice, as is the case in many local authorities across the country. This is the stage when arguably all the decisions are really being made (subject to the formal planning process). Unfortunately, Labour rejected this and instead discussions between developers and the council should be conducted in absolute secrecy.

Even once outline permission has been granted, Adam and Ray work with residents to address concerns about the development. You can read about their recent work with residents on Barrowcroft Green below.