Your correspondent S Potts (Greenbelt Plan is Hypocritical, Letters, December 31) suggests that there is a conflict between allocating land for housing and jobs and reducing our carbon footprint. In one sense he is right. Everything that human beings do (including breathing!) generates greenhouse gases. The point is not to stop doing anything, but to make the right choices about the future which minimise greenhouse gases.
Paradoxically, new developments have a much lower carbon footprint than existing buildings. They are built to much higher standards and Salford City Council is insisting on rigorous planning controls for private developers. The Council is leading by example with its own buildings – for example, our programme to provide new high schools should reduce the carbon footprint of those schools by 60 per cent.
The Core Strategy will ensure that new development is built to the highest standards of sustainability that are possible. The Core Strategy will also demand that new development is accessible so journeys can be made by foot, cycling or public transport.
The Core Strategy also promotes ‘green infrastructure’ – the green spaces that are needed for sustainability. This does not mean sterilizing all land. It means making sure that new green spaces are provided in those parts of the city where there is a deficit. It also means safeguarding land that is important as a carbon ’sink’ – that is the woodlands and the peat bogland at the heart of Chat Moss.
The most sustainable way to develop our city in the future is to use ‘brownfield’ sites as a priority – that is, to recycle previously developed land. That is exactly what the Core Strategy proposes. But the forecasts we have suggest that using that land will not be enough to meet the needs of future generations for homes and jobs.
That is why we have proposed a minor amendment to the greenbelt with a 1.2 per cent reduction in Barton compensated for by a 1.2 per cent increase in Little Hulton. (There is no housing proposed on greenbelt land).
The site at Barton was selected precisely because, of all the options before us, it appears to be the most environmentally sustainable. The new Port Salford development means that there will be access by train and the new industry will be able to take advantage of the Port’s new road network rather than increasing the carbon footprint with additional infrastructure.
That is not to say that the Barton site will go ahead. The City Council is consulting on the proposal at the moment. No one would be happier than me if it could be shown that the site is not needed or that there is land available elsewhere to meet the needs of future generations. That is why we will work with local groups to test all the evidence to make sure we have got it right.
Our plan has to be honest. It must be based on the evidence that is available about future needs and how they can be met – not on whether they inconvenience one special interest group or another. If the plan is not honest, it can be amended by an Inspector at a public inquiry.
I expect one of the biggest debates at the public inquiry will be between the Council and private developers who wanted the Council to release 90 hectares of greenbelt land – rather than retain the the existing level with minor amendments as proposed by the Council. The Council has rejected ideas to release land at Worsley greenway, Hazelhurst Farm and more greenbelt land in Irlam.
Councillor Derek Antrobus
Lead Member for Planning
Telephone:
Office: 0161-793 2190
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