Save Royton's Greenbelt Community Group was formed in 2016 when the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework first proposed removing large swathes of Royton's green spaces from the Greenbelt protection it had enjoyed for many years, to build thousands of houses on. The GMSF itself states that 'the existing supply of potential housing site identified in the districts' strategic housing land availability assessments, small sites and empty properties is adequate to meet the overall identified need.'
We believe that the councils of Greater Manchester are preferring to use Greenbelt sites as they can achieve better returns from developers who can build more expensive housing in these natural areasof beauty.
Back on 2nd January 2017 we organised a protest/awareness walk to Tandle Hills, at which 3,000 people attended, all opposed to the destruction of our local Greenbelt. This action led to the release of the revised GMSF in 2019 which saw some reduction in proposed Greenbelt development, but still left us facing the prospect of thousands of houses being built on our Greenbelt.
Despite many thousands of written objections to Greater Manchester Combined Authority's plans to remove the Greenbelt, they are continuing to try to push their proposal through. Our best chance now is to put forward a legal challenge to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. This is an expensive fight, but we are confident that we can defeat them and have already raised thousands of pounds, thanks to the generosity of our many local supporters.
We urge you to get involved and support our lottery to help us pay for planning advice and legal action.