BOLTON MP Sir David Crausby has slammed Bolton Council’s submission to the controversial spatial framework development plan, labelling the proposals ‘tremendously confusing'.

Public consultation has now closed on the huge development proposal — which could see more than 16,000 houses built across Bolton in the next 20 years, including about 7,000 on green sites.

In his submission, Bolton North East MP Mr Crausby said he believes the draft plan ‘fails’ in getting the detail right of what is needed for the region.

He also criticised the public engagement exercise associated with the draft plans. He said: “I find that huge numbers of my constituents have never heard of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF), they do not know about the plans for their area and they have not been made aware of how to engage with the process.”

Each of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs was tasked with developing its own submission for the framework plan and the Labour MP said he was not impressed with what was created at Bolton Town Hall.

He said: “While everyone else has clearly defined sites for development interest, we have the vague and uncertain ‘North Bolton Strategic Development Opportunity Area’. This has caused tremendous confusion about what is and isn’t likely to happen across a large portion of the borough.”

This refers to one aspect of Bolton’s framework submission — which suggests that 3,000 homes could be built in the North of the borough, but does not offer specific sites which may be developed.

Mr Crausby added: “How is any one resident in that area supposed to know how or whether their community would be impacted? The lack of detail is a huge barrier to meaningful engagement with this process.”

Like many people, the Bolton North East MP’s chief concerns about the framework plan is the impact on green belt land.

He said: “The spatial framework documents try to downplay this impact, but a loss of 8 per cent of the green belt would be massive and a detriment to the areas most affected.”

He believes the North Bolton Strategic Development Area ‘puts at risk several large areas of green belt land'. He added: “The draft framework talks of encouraging walking and cycling but it could potentially result in the disappearance of some of the areas people most enjoy these activities.”

While pointing out that there are 4,771 empty properties in Bolton which he believes ‘could be brought back into use,’ he said: “Brownfield sites absolutely need to be the focus of this plan. There are legitimate fears that the current proposals will open up green belt land and developers will rush to build there right away, whilst those areas most in need of regeneration will be left waiting for years.”