Bolton local plan marches on
Cabinet and full council have now approved the draft document, meaning it can move to the statutory eight-week consultation stage.
The document considered by members is Bolon’s draft local plan for 2022 to 2042, setting out how the council intends to map out development of housing, employment space, retail and other land uses in the coming years, in line with government requirements for a plan-led approach.
As with Tameside’s local plan, which is at roughly the same point on the timeline, it is stressed that this local plan is intended for use alongside Greater Manchester’s Places for Everyone 2024 masterplan.
On the housing side, PfE includes requirements for Bolton to deliver at least 787 homes a year in Bolton, equivalent to at least 13,717 homes over this plan period, when under-delivery so far is taken into account.
Looking at strategic employment locations, Bewshill Farm, Chequerbent North, and West of Wingates are are already allocated by PfE as locations for industrial and warehousing development. All of those fall within the NorthFold joint growth corridor for Bolton and Wigan.
With Logistics North having become one of the genuine powerhouse industrial locations in the region, Bolton’s status is well established in that field, with vacancy rates at around 2% comparing favourably to the GM average.
In order to drive home Bolton’s strength, Green Belt releases are proposed, as one of five sources of industrial land (along with those already consented, on site, or allocated or designated in some way).
These are named as Logistics North extension, the recently-launched £520m Health Innovation Bolton, and the Blackrod Employment Cluster.
Perhaps less publicised to date is the thinking around offices: according to the plan, the minimum requirement for Bolton office space over the plan period is just shy of 180,000 sq ft, with central Bolton as the focus.
At present, there is around 86,300 sq ft of consented space. The Crompton Place allocation could see a further 113,000 sq ft developed, as recorded here – although as Place reported when revealing MEPC as preferred development partner, current thinking is for around 80,000 sq ft. A further 27,000 sq ft could be added at Burnden Way/Middlebrook.
Green Belt release will also be required for housing. As set out in the report, “the evidence is clear that the homes Bolton needs over the Plan period cannot be delivered on brownfield and other non-Green Belt sites alone.
“Brownfield regeneration is still a priority for Bolton, but our assessment revealed many of these sites carry significant remediation, viability and assembly challenges.”
