CAMPAIGNERS have warned town hall leaders to expect a repeat of mass protests which saw thousands march against green belt development following the unveiling of Oldham’s revised 20 year plan for homes and jobs.

The publication of the reworked Greater Manchester spatial framework this week revealed that more dwellings would be built in the borough than in 2016 – and across more green belt sites.

It would see around 14,290 homes built between now and 2037, an increase of 590 dwellings from the previous allocation.

Of these, approximately 4,050 homes and thousands of square metres of employment space would be built on allocations of land designated as green belt.

Two huge commercial and housing developments have also been put forward as part of the plan at the Oldham and Rochdale border, at both Stakehill and Kingsway South.

However the total green belt "take" for Oldham has been reduced to 2.57 per cent, down from the 3.1 per cent originally proposed in the 2016 draft framework.

Natalie Yates-Bolton, a coordinator from the Save Chadderton Green Belt group, said that they were preparing to fight the latest plans.

“We are very disappointed that they have just ignored the advice of Andy Burnham and the protest groups, and the population of Oldham,” she said.

“A lot of the areas listed for employment space will be for warehousing and storage, it doesn’t make the employment or skills of the borough any better – we are not giving up the green belt for a good reason.

“We want Oldham to be a place worth growing up in for the next generation.”

She added: “If Stockport and Bolton councils can be responsive to the concerns of their communities and their population, why can’t Oldham?

“They don’t seem to have listened either to Andy Burnham or to the people that they are supposed to be serving.

“They seem to have come back again with exactly the same plan – if not worse.”

Noel Mahon, from the Save Royton Greenbelt group, hinted they could see a repeat of the protests of two years ago, which saw more than 3,000 people march against the draft plan at Tandle Hill.

He claimed the revision, which has more homes planned, sees the borough "worse off".

“We obviously weren’t taken seriously enough by Oldham council the first time, so we are much more determined to make our local politicians and our council take note,” he said.

“We are even more upset and angry at the fact that Oldham council have ignored so many available brownfield sites that exist in the region and have not done enough to obtain these sites.

“There are thousands of acres of derelict mills and wasteland laid empty across the borough that could be used for housing projects or commercial uses.”

He added: “As residents, we also have many other concerns including the huge increase in traffic, noise and air pollution that these proposed developments would bring to the area.”

Mr Mahon said they are already planning joint actions with neighbouring green belt groups in Shaw and Chadderton.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition in Oldham, Cllr Howard Sykes raised concerns that the road network and local infrastructure would be unable to cope with the number of new homes allocated in the borough.

“The Liberal Democrats recognise that we shall need more homes, including affordable housing for first-time buyers and renters and homes for people living independently with disabilities,” he said.

“But our green belt is irreplaceable so we will continue to oppose any plans to build there when there are unused brownfield sites that can be built on and empty mills which can be converted into residential accommodation.”

He added: “In Shaw and Crompton, we already have primary schools which are bursting at the seams and an overburdened and run down health centre; without more investment in our transport infrastructure and better, new public facilities we simply cannot cope with any more people.

His party’s pleas to make sure no green belt was built on have been "ignored", Cllr Sykes said, and therefore they would "redouble" their efforts to oppose the plans.

But council leader Sean Fielding said: “If we want to meet the housing demands and people’s expectations for Oldham, and if we want to be a successful borough that’s part of the wider Greater Manchester economy, not the one that’s been left behind as we have been then we do have to take difficult decisions.

“And I’m quite prepared to front those up because I believe in what it is that we’re trying to do to make Oldham a more successful and prosperous place.

“Green belt is a very emotive phrase but within the sites that we’ve allocated there is some land that is not the kind of lush green fields that people walk their dogs in that you associate with that phrase.”