Stockport Local Plan consultation to begin in January

An eight-week consultation on Stockport’s Local Plan is due to begin on 23rd January 2023, after being postponed earlier this autumn.

The Local Plan sets out the borough’s vision for future development in the borough, and is a statutory document used by council’s to assess planning applications, highlighting land available for development to meet the boroughs needs for housebuilding and commercial schemes as well as land to be protected.

The Draft Local Plan is set to be published later in December 2022, before being examined and progressed by the borough’s councillors and Cabinet. The public consultation beginning from 23rd January for eight weeks will give borough residents and other stakeholders in the plan the opportunity to comment on proposals and inform the final Local Plan, due to be voted on by councillors in summer 2023.

Stockport Council’s Liberal Democrat group, which run the council as the largest grouping, shared the new date for the launch of the public consultation on their website. The Local Plan consultation had previously been due to take place in Autumn 2022 but was postponed given uncertainty over the borough’s housing targets following Liz Truss’ appointment as Prime Minister in September.

Local Liberal Democrat councillors have also outlined their opposition to excess loss of Green Belt land on Stockport’s outskirts, after previously voting down the borough’s inclusion in a Greater Manchester-wide approach to planning, the now-shelved GM Spatial Framework.

Cllr Mark Hunter, Leader of the Council and of the Liberal Democrats at Stockport Town Hall, said:

“The launch of the consultation is the next major milestone towards developing the right plan for Stockport. This is in the face of continued confusion from the Conservative government, who will not come off the fence and tell us whether their top-down targets are mandatory or whether we can act to protect our Green Belt for future generations.”

With continued uncertainty over housing targets under Rishi Sunak’s premiership, councillors will receive confidential briefings as to council’s approach to this factor of the Local Plan

Cllr Colin MacAlister, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration, added: 

“The approach we are going to take is novel but we hope will give us the maximum flexibility, whatever the government finally decide to do.

“Councillors in other political groups will be briefed this week ahead of the formal publication of papers before Christmas. I am sure they can be relied upon to respect the confidentiality of those early briefings and avoid any further delay that leaking inaccurate information might cause.”