Latham House farm in Wigan has been in Jimmy Morris’s family for more than 80 years. He and his wife, Gillian, use their nine hectares (23 acres) of greenbelt land to graze sheep and cows, and in the winter they welcome Blackpool beach’s donkeys for their holidays.
The first they knew of proposals to build on their land was when a council notice was pinned to a lamppost on their road. A stretch of land next to the Morris’s farmhouse, near the junction between the M6 and the M58, has been marked as a possible site for a new road leading from the motorway, plus 170 houses and 150,000 sq metres of employment space.
The family bought the farm 30 years ago, after renting it for more than half a century, in the hope that they could secure it for future generations. “Our youngest lad [Tom] is mad keen on farming and we want to keep the farm for him,” says Jimmy. Tom, 16, will have his test to get his tractor driving licence next Friday. “He’ll have no use for it if this goes ahead,” says Gillian.
Their son Andrew, 20, has Asperger’s syndrome and epilepsy, and Gillian and Jimmy are worried about what a move would do to him. “Andrew couldn’t just set up somewhere else and be settled,” says Gillian. “He gets hysterical when we start talking about it sometimes.”
The proposals are part of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, compiled and agreed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The plan aims to build 227,000 new homes in the region over the next two decades, with 25,000 of those in Wigan. A public consultation on the proposals closes on Monday.
The GMSF has many critics, including the Labour, Liberal Democrat, Ukip and Green party candidates for next May’s Greater Manchester metro mayor election. In his official submission to the public consultation on the plan, Labour’s candidate, the former shadow home secretary Andy Burnham, called for the plans to be radically rewritten and to result in no net loss of green belt.
Last year a report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank showed that Greater Manchester had seen the sharpest fall in home ownership in England, falling from 72.4% in April 2003 to 57.9% in February 2016. Home ownership for England as a whole fell from a peak of 70.8% in April 2003 to 63.8% February 2016.
The deputy leader of Wigan council, David Molyneux, has said that while he understands residents’ concerns, he has to look at the bigger picture. “[We] must take the decisions to provide opportunities for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said.
“They deserve good employment opportunities and the chance to buy their own home in the borough. Unfortunately there is an insufficient supply of brownfield sites to fully address housing needs, that is why some greenfield land is needed.”
Gillian argues that the local community values the green space, using it for jogging and dog walking. The proposals would ruin views and bring more traffic to what is already a gridlocked area. She also says that children in the area love coming to visit the donkeys, which – if the proposals go ahead – will have to find somewhere else to holiday.
