Setting out the shape and ambitions of Bury

Wednesday, 26 February 2025 10:25

By David Murphy

Bury Council is drawing up a new Local Plan which will help to determine the shape of the borough for decades to come.

The Government requires all local councils to produce long-term plans for their areas and the Local Plan will sit alongside the recently adopted Places for Everyone Joint Plan as a key document used to guide and manage future development and planning applications in Bury.

Some of the major strategic decisions relating to Bury’s future growth and development have already been made through the Places for Everyone Joint Plan, including the identification of future needs for new housing and business floorspace and the identification of several strategic sites required to meet these needs.

Bury’s new Local Plan will provide a more detailed set of locally specific planning policies to complement the Places for Everyone Plan. These policies are designed to ensure that new developments respond to a range of planning issues, including:

Adapting to climate change;
Meeting our housing needs;
Delivering economic growth;
Supporting our town centres;
Promoting tourism and culture;
Creating healthy and successful communities;
Promoting sustainable transport;
Conserving the built environment and achieve high quality design;
Protecting green and blue infrastructure and recreation;
Protecting the Green Belt;
Managing water and flood risk;
Addressing air quality, pollution and hazards; and
Delivering infrastructure.

The draft plan will be considered by the council’s cabinet on 5 March. If approved, there will then be an eight-week period of public consultation.

The consultation will relate only to the draft Local Plan and is not seeking comments on the principle of development on the sites identified in the Places for Everyone Plan as these have already been allocated for development.

The Council’s Leader, Councillor Eamon O’Brien, said: “This is an extremely important plan that will provide a strong policy basis to assess and manage future development in the Borough, including the strategic sites that are identified in the Places for Everyone Plan. The plan sets out key policy requirements including securing much needed affordable homes and education infrastructure, whilst protecting our most important green spaces”.

Following the end of the consultation, the council will consider all comments received before preparing an updated version of the plan which will be subject to further consultation towards the end of the year. The plan will then be sent to the Government who will appoint an independent Planning Inspector to examine the plan.

To read the cabinet report, click here.