DEAR WIRRAL MPs - Matthew Patrick (Wirral West), Alison McGovern, (Birkenhead), Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Bromborough), Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey – the people of Wirral, your Constituents, need your URGENT help!
The Wirral Green Space Alliance is, again, urgently, requesting a meeting with you. We are an Alliance of over 30 Wirral Community and Environmental Groups. Over recent years we have spent enormous amounts of time, effort and money campaigning, engaging Wirral residents, and encouraging your Constituents to respond to the Local Plan process and consultations. We support the Council who have now produced a “Brownfield ONLY Local Plan” (NOT Brownfield FIRST), which has the support of all Wirral Councillors (of all political parties) and the vast majority of your Constituents. It focuses on much needed regeneration in Birkenhead, protecting our Environment and preserving our Green Belt which is needed to mitigate against Climate Change.
Your government has announced sweeping changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) with a new illogical Standard Method for calculating housing need which could see Wirral Borough required to build 28000 houses, (a population increase of 60,000+ or 20%) and put the Green Belt at great risk.
The Council Brownfield Only Local Plan has been with the Government Planning Inspector for final sign off since November 2024. The Council, and its hard-working officers, have done all they can but it is CRITICAL that the Local Plan is adopted before the “Transistional Arrangements” deadline of March 2025 is imposed by your government. Otherwise, our Brownfield Only Local Plan, all the regeneration plans, the employment plans and supporting environmental policies and climate change policies which underpin the Local Plan, and are FUNDAMENTAL to its success, are at risk. This is not just about housing numbers (although that is a big issue) this is also about all the other policies that support the Local Plan too.
If this Local Plan is not signed off by March, then Wirral and the Green Belt would be at risk of Developers haphazard hostile planning applications in totally unsuitable places putting the Green Belt at great risk and our environment destroyed for ever. It will also put the regeneration plans for the most deprived areas of Wirral at great risk, as Developers will want to direct their resources to the more profitable Green Belt sites. This would mean that the much-needed regeneration and social truly affordable homes that are so desperately needed will not be built.
Council Officers have spent many years working on this Local Plan (at a cost of many £millions) putting great strain on the health and well being of many officers, not to mention the many campaigners who are part of the Wirral Green Space Alliance and local residents who have worked hard to help shape this Local Plan. It would be a disaster if all this work went to waste at the very last hurdle because of an arbritrary dead line imposed by your Government.
The “Transistional Arrangements” put in place by your Government were designed to ensure that work done by Councils on largely complete Local Plans wasn’t wasted. The Council have kept to their side of the bargain, they have submitted the final plan for sign off in good time, but the delay is now with your Government’s Planning Inspectorate. WE NEED YOU TO HELP US!
Please will you meet with the Wirral Green Space Alliance, URGENTLY! We have been asking for meetings since last August. FOUR TIMES with have written to you requesting an URGENT meeting, but none has been forthcoming – we have received apologies and assurances, but no action. This is the biggest issue to affect the whole of the Wirral for a generation and YOUR CONSTITUENTS are relying on you to represent the best interests of the people of the Wirral and help us get the Local Plan adopted.
We look forward to hearing from you soon and hope for a meeting at the earliest opportunity. The deadline is just weeks away and there is no time for further delays.
Yours hopefully
Wirral Green Space Alliance.
Dear WGSA Supporters: Please email your MP and ask them if they intend to stand up for Wirral and help to stop our Local Plan, which has the overwhelming support of their Constituents, from failing at the last minute due to an arbitrary cut off date imposed by the Government and delays with the Goverments Planning Inspector:
Wirral West: matthew.patrick.mp@parliament.uk
Wallasey: angela.eagle.mp@parliament.uk
Birkenhead: alison.mcgovern.mp@parliament.uk
Ellesmere Port and Bromborough: justin.madders.mp@parliament.uk
The Wirral Green Space Alliance is an Alliance of the following organisations:
The Wirral Society (Campaign to Protect Rural England Wirral)
Conservation Areas Wirral (CAW)
Wirral Footpaths and Open Spaces Preservation Society
Wirral Barn Owl Trust
Irby Thursaston and Pensby Amenity Society (ITPAS)
The Heswall Society Mountwood and Bebington Society
Barnston Conservation Society
Frankby Conservation Society
Wirral Ramblers
Greasby Greenbelt Action Group
The Caldy Society
Thornton Hough Community Trust
Saughall Massie Conservation Area
Eastham Village Preservation Association
Claremont Defenders
Defend Wirral’s Green and Open Spaces
Bromborough Society
Storeton Residents Association
Wirral Wildlife (Cheshire Wildlife Trust)