MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL are proposing to REJECT FORF’s application for Ryebank Fields to be designated as a Local Green Space. This would have given a similar level of protection to Green Belt in planning terms.
To satisfy the Local Green Space Criteria the space must be:
(1) in reasonably close proximity to the community it serves; (2) demonstrably special to a local community and hold a particular local significance, for example because of its beauty, historic significance, recreational value (including as a playing field), tranquility or richness of its wildlife; (3) local in character and not an extensive tract of land
Manchester City Council agreed that Ryebank Fields met the criteria, which is an important acknowledgement. They can only designate a Local Green Space as part of the Local Plan process – this is the planning document for the whole Manchester which is reviewed about once a decade (and has been repeatedly delayed since 2020 when it was due). They are required to weigh up the balance of the argument for protecting a Green Space with other priorities and strategies.
In their decision document (also linked below) Manchester point to the existence of a ‘Ryebank Road Development Framework’ (which we have always contested as based on outdated and insufficient information) and the fact that Ryebank Fields are listed in something called the SHLAA – a spreadsheet of potential housing sites – as reasons not to designate the land as Local Green Space. We think this decision is unsound, and is the third time in the last year that the SHLAA has been used to rule Ryebank Fields out of something before even considering its relative merits as a green and nature space. Other groups, Lower Medlock Valley, and Irk Valley and Sandhills have similarly been excluded from consideration for the same reasons.
Our Application document is below, followed by the decision document.