Salford City Council has placed their consultation over plans to destroy hundreds of acres of Greenbelt onto Facebook as a means of encouraging 'young' people to engage in local planning. 'Young' people on Facebook! Surely they mean Bebo!
Anyway the plan to construct up to 21000 new houses in Salford seem somewhat flawed. Salford is a shrinking city. Its population has dropped 12.5% since 1981 - and mid-term Census estimates suggest the city's population has only marginally grown since 2001 (by around 1%)
Clearly lifestyle changes suggest that household size is shrinking as more people live on their own or in smaller family units than they used - therefore increasing the demand for individual dwelling units. But I can't reconcile how Salford needs an additional 21,000 new houses. Somehow I can't see thousands of families suddenly flooding into the city from elsewhere. Indeed given the city's social and environmental problems, the dominant movement of people remains towards the suburbs or out the city completely. In other words, those who have the means to leave Salford - do so.
Families in particular, have left areas such as Seedley, Langworthy, Weaste and Blackfriars - ironically areas where 100s of solid Victorian terraced houses have been demolished.
The assault on the greenbelt is very worrying. Not only will this contribute to the loss of greenery and ecology, but the ensuing urban sprawl will only contribute to traffic problems throughout the city - as people will have little to choice but to use their cars to access jobs and services from their newly constructed isolated housing estates stuck in the middle of nowhere.
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