Godley Green: Tameside leader will 'ram scheme down throats'

Tameside Council leader Brenda Warrington told a meeting that more houses needed to built in the borough

A council leader who was criticised over a scheme to build 2,150 homes on green belt land has said she "will ram it down" the throats of opponents.

Tameside Council's plans to create Godley Green garden village in Hyde have been met with 3,400 objections.

Two councillors opposed to the scheme have been pictured wearing "Brenda the Bulldozer" t-shirts, a reference to council leader Brenda Warrington.

Ms Warrington told a council meeting she would be "on that first bulldozer".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that under the plans, the homes would be built to the north of Mottram Old Road, alongside planned retail and community spaces.

The Labour-led council has said that if approved, the site would generate £9m in income for the authority.

'Grow Tameside'

Ms Warrington said the council was being forced to meet a housing target set by the government, and that reaching the target would be "entirely unrealistic" without developing the land at Godley Green.

Responding to a reference to the "bulldozer" nickname from Conservative councillor Liam Billington, she told a meeting that the council "want to grow Tameside".

"We want to have more houses in Tameside... and, of course, those houses will pay council tax and so we are going to increase our growth agenda," she added.

"Godley Green, I make no mistake, I will be on that first bulldozer and that is a promise.

"I will be on that bulldozer that actually starts to dig up ready to build houses on Godley Green and believe me it will be rammed down your throat."

The village was first drafted under the scrapped Greater Manchester Spatial Framework project.

The plans are due before a planning committee later in the year and, if approved, will then be put before the secretary of state.

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