MEMBERS of Bury Green Party have urged all residents to rally together, regardless of politics, to fight against building on the green belt.

The party held a public meeting tonight to raise concerns about land earmarked for development in the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

Over 20 people attended at Freedom Church and party member Nicole Haydock was pleased with the turnout.

She said: “It goes to show the strength of feeling against the proposals and we need to do something about it.

“Everyone needs to work together, regardless of their political party to fight this. We all need to be united while fighting this issue.”

The framework, which sets out a plan for Greater Manchester for the next 19 years, has earmarked 12,000 new homes and commercial projects creating 25,000 new jobs.

The decision to build a number of these homes on green belt land has aggrieved a number of residents and the Green Party believed that Bury Council has not done enough to properly inform local people.

Mrs Haydock said: “The whole reason behind this meeting was to inform people on the implications this plan will have on the green belt and what people can do to object.

“There has been one public meeting held by Bury Council and that is not good enough, people do not know about what could happen.”

Charlie Allen, party member, added: “What people need to realise is that everyone is going to be affected by this plan.

“They might look at the map and think that it won’t directly affect them because it is not in their back garden but it will.

“It will make a huge difference to the roads and the facilities across the whole of Bury.”

Residents at the meeting were given a presentation by Karen Wood, secretary of the group, who went through the implications of building on green belt.

She said: “We need to galvanise the whole community to object to this, we really can’t let this go through, it would be criminal.”

Issues raised by residents included loss of open green space, infrastructure and lack of schools and facilities.

Public consultation on the draft version of the framework runs until December 23.

Comments can be emailed to GMSF@agma.gov.uk or online at gmsf-consult.objective.co.uk