Tameside Council leader says ‘I will be on that bulldozer’ to build controversial Godley Green garden village

A council leader said “I will be on that bulldozer” to build a controversial garden village – and “will ram it down your throat”.

Labour’s Brenda Warrington hit back at Tories over their opposition to build 2,150 homes on green belt land in Hyde.

More than 3,400 people have objected to the plans, lodged by Tameside Council, to build the Godley Green garden village which are due to go before the planning committee later this year.

It comes after two councillors wore protest t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Brenda the Bulldozer’ over her support for the new village.

Coun Warrington spoke out after a reference to her ‘bulldozer’ nickname by Tory councillor Liam Billington during the fiery meeting on Tuesday.

She said: “We want to grow Tameside, we want to have more houses in Tameside.

“And of course those houses will pay council tax and so we’re going to increase our growth agenda.

“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. It really will.”

Coun Warrington added they were being forced to meet housing targets set by the government, which meant they had to develop green belt land.

If approved the huge development would generate £9m in income for the council, chiefs say.

Under the plans the homes would be built to the north of Mottram Old Road, as well as ‘local centres’ which would include up to 1,300 sq m of retail, 1,600 sq m of commercial uses and 1,000 sq m of local community uses.

The properties will be split across two villages divided by Godley Brook, with 1,250 dwellings in the west and 900 homes in the east of the site.

Chiefs say the project is being developed under the principles of garden cities championed by Ebenezer Howard more than a century ago.

The scheme for the green belt land, first mooted under the original Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals, is progressing despite the region’s current masterplan ‘Places For Everyone’ yet to be approved by the Secretary of State.

Tameside Council says that meeting its housing target over the next 17 years would be ‘entirely unrealistic’ without developing the land at Godley Green.

According to the planning application, construction would take place over a 15 year period, with 102 homes intended to be delivered within 2022/23.

But even if the plans are approved by the council’s planning committee, they will then go to the Secretary of State who will make the final decision on whether to allow it to go ahead.