Greater Manchester residents asked for input on development plan for nine boroughs
A consultation will run for eight weeks, inviting people to have their say on a big plan to build thousands of new homes and 55 million sq ft of office/industrial space.
Greater Manchester residents and businesspeople are being asked for their feedback on a new masterplan designed to shape how the city-region could look up to 2037.
A consultation is now open for ‘Places For Everyone’ – which is the successor to the former Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (scrapped last year when Stockport Council withdrew from the process).
New proposals are suggesting the construction of 165,000 new homes (fewer than in the earlier draft), with a 60% reduction in green belt development.
55,000 of these properties will also be classed as affordable housing, with 30,000 available for social rent.
Proposals also include 55 million sq ft of office, industrial and warehousing space.
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❓ The Places for Everyone consultation is now open until 3 October.
🏡 The plan is about determining the kind of development that will take place across nine Greater Manchester boroughs.
— Greater Manchester Combined Authority (@greatermcr) August 9, 2021
Nine of the ten Greater Manchester councils have approved Places For Everyone, with Stockport the lone exception.
The consultation is now at its final stage before being submitted to the Secretary of State.
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Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett, Chair of the Places for Everyone Joint Committee, said the plan would “decide what kind of development takes place and where” whilst “maximising the use of brownfield land and urban spaces while protecting green belt land from the risk of unplanned development.”
He added: “It will benefit our places and helps us recover from the pandemic, tackle housing inequality, and pave the way for a low-carbon economy.
“It’s important for people to know that this will be a different kind of consultation to the ones previously carried out, with questions about whether the plan meets specific criteria.
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“All nine councils have taken steps to make this consultation as open and accessible and possible, and will be engaging with residents over the next eight weeks to make sure everyone knows how they can take part and have their say.”
The consultation will run for eight weeks / Image: GMCA
The consultation is live now online and will run for eight weeks, closing on October 3.
Appeal launched to find the owner of live chickens found at Creamfields festival
Daisy Jackson
The hunt is on to find the owner of a pair of chickens who were discovered at Creamfields festival.
The two birds were spotted on the grounds of the huge electronic music festival by bewildered festival-goers.
The cockerel and hen were trapped in a hedge, after it appears they wandered onto the festival campsite before the security barriers were installed.
The birds then found themselves trapped inside as around 70,000 music fans poured into Cheshire for a line-up that included Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia, Disclosure, and Tiësto.
The chickens have been safely rescued from the Creamfields festival site and are recovering at a wildlife centre, and now the RSPCA is on a mission to find their owner.
Festival-goers first called the RSPCA on Saturday 29 August to alert them to the cockerel and hen trapped inside the festival, one of whom assisted in the rescue mission.
RSPCA Inspector Leanne Cooper: “I was surprised that they were inside the festival site and I needed to get through the road blocks and security before reaching them on foot through muddy fields. I met the caller who helped me as they were just running up and down the hedge line where there was a wire fence blocking access.
Where the chickens were discovered at CreamfieldsThe RSPCA wants to track their owners down
“We managed to guide them out and I caught both of them with my rescue net which was a bit of a sight for the festival campers.
“I don’t think they were abandoned and they’re more likely to be stray because it’s farmland all around the festival site. They don’t have any health issues, apart from being quite underweight.
“With the fences going up a week before the festival starts they’d probably been unable to get out for some time and had been left foraging in the hedge. Someone mentioned that a third bird was also trapped, although we couldn’t find any others.
“I am really grateful to the festival-goer who found them and alerted us to their plight.”
Manchester Airport issues update for anyone flying today after hundreds of cancellations yesterday
Emily Sergeant
Manchester Airport has issued an update for anyone catching a flight today after hundreds of cancellations yesterday.
In case you hadn’t heard, hundreds of flights at several major UK airports – including Manchester Airport – were disrupted by a technical fault at air traffic control provider National Air Traffic Services (NATS) yesterday (8 September 2026), with the incident grounding planes and resulting in numerous cancellations.
According to Flightradar24, more than 1,000 flights were cancelled nationwide, and many passengers were told to expect disruption for the rest of the day.
One of the worst-affected airlines was said to be Ryanair, with around 65,000 passengers affected by the cancellations and delays.
Manchester Airport issued its first statement addressing the matter at 3:15pm yesterday, stating: “We are aware of an issue affecting NATS’ air traffic control service at UK airports, which may result in delays to some departing flights from Manchester Airport today.
“Passengers due to travel are advised to check the latest status of their flight with their airline. We will continue to monitor the situation and share further updates as more information becomes available.”
Now, although the issue has been resolved, Manchester Airport has issued further statements informing anyone travelling today what they can expect.
The airport started off by saying that it is ‘operating as normal’ today, but that passengers are advised to ‘check with their airline for the latest information’.
The Manc -
10th August 2021 
