Hyde Conservative chair Andrea Colbourne accused Hyde and Stalybridge Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds of failing to listen to thousands of his own constituents this week.
The Godley Green garden village proposal was backed by the Labour MP when still part of the second draft of the Greater Manchester spatial framework (GMSF) back in 2019.
But as opposition to the plans to build more than 2,000 homes in the area continue to grow, Andrea, who is also a local election Conservative candidate for Hyde Godley, posted an email she has sent to the MP on the ‘Save Tameside Greenbelt’ Facebook page.
In her letter she states: “In 2018 the Conservatives pledged to invest £44billion to deliver 300,000 new homes per year. A pledge that you seem to have taken with relish. My email is also in response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s remarks to MP Mike Woods in PMQs on Wednesday, March 2, where he stated that brownfield should be built on first.
“I’m aware that you are fully agreeable to the plans. However the recent story about a landowner who is being bullied into selling their land with Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) is beyond belief...
“I don’t understand how a neighbouring Tameside MP Andrew Gwynne, can be fighting his cause against building on the greenbelt in his constituency and Tameside Council support him, whilst here in Hyde you want to rip out the green lungs of the community and again Tameside Council support you.
“As an MP I don’t believe you are listening to thousands of your constituents who are up in arms over these plans...”
She continues by drawing on many of the campaigners’ concerns around traffic, roads, infrastructure for public transport, doctors and schools as well as concern for wildlife.
She concludes: “In the current climate during the pandemic the green spaces and green belt have been a godsend for people’s well-being....The greenbelt provides a safe environment for wildlife. It provides people’s livelihoods. It provides people’s homes.
“How on earth can you consider wiping out an area of countryside, beauty and greenbelt – an area this size instead of building on brownfield sites first?”
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