Salford council has endorsed the latest version of a development masterplan for Greater Manchester despite opposition from its own Labour councillors.
An eight-week public consultation on the Places for Everyone plan - the successor to the ill-fated spatial framework - is set to start on August 9.
Fewer houses would be built on Salford's green belt as a controversial proposal to develop land at Chat Moss has been halved in the latest draft.
READ MORE: Controversial development at Chat Moss halved in latest regional masterplan
A total of 800 homes are now planned for the land north of Irlam station.
But local Labour councillors said the plans are still not suitable for the Irlam and Cadishead community and three voted against endorsing the proposal.
Together with councillors Lewis Nelson, Joan Walsh and Peter Taylor, Conservative and Lib Dem councillors also voted against the proposal.
It is understood that the three Labour councillors could now face disciplinary action within the party for voting against the plan in what was a whipped vote.
Speaking at a full council meeting on Wednesday (July 21), Cadishead and Lower Irlam councillor Lewis Nelson said he first got involved in politics at the age of 14 when he campaigned to save Chat Moss from development.
He said: "I'm proud to be a Labour councillor. I got involved in protecting the Moss when the local Labour Party was protecting this area of the Moss at the same time.
"I got involved in politics because I believe in social justice. I'm acutely aware that many people in my ward are desperate to get a home.
"But fundamentally, I believe that this site isn't the right place and has the right visions to make it workable for our community and therefore I can't support the endorsement of this plan to go to consultation today."
The Labour councillor, who was first elected in 2019 on a mandate to protect Chat Moss, said he supports the idea of having a joint regional masterplan.
However, he raised concerns about the access points proposed for the new housing estate as well as infrastructure in the wider Irlam and Cadishead area.
He protested that peat bog should be protected to avert 'climate catastrophe'.
And, pointing to other plans nearby such as those around the proposed HS2 Golborne Spur, he said the community is concerned that it could soon be 'sandwiched' between unwanted developments 'for a very long time to come'.
Conservative councillors also spoke out against the latest draft document.
An expansion of Port Salford accommodating around 320,000sqm of floorspace is still planned to the north and west of Barton Aerodrome.
Around 300 homes would be built on land east of Boothstown, near the RHS Garden Bridgewater site, between Leigh Road and the Bridgewater Canal.
Land at Hazelhurst Farm to the east of the M60 and to the south of the A580 East Lancashire Road would also be developed for another 400 dwellings.
Around half of these home should be affordable – but developers could be allowed to build the affordable homes elsewhere, a council report reveals.
Worsley and Westwood Park councillor Karen Garrido said she supported family homes being built, but argued that there are no community facilities close by.
She said none of the homes on these green belt sites would be affordable for Salford residents, suggesting they would be for the 'footballers of this world'.
Her Conservative colleague and husband Robin Garrido said Salford council's own figures demonstrate that the number of houses proposed is not needed.
Speaking at a special cabinet meeting which followed full council, Salford mayor Paul Dennett said most developments would be on brownfield land.
Around 90 pc of new housing, 99 pc of offices and 47 pc of warehouses proposed in the Places for Everyone plan would in urban areas of the city.
Deputy mayor John Merry urged councillors to endorse the plan and encouraged them to raise their concerns as part of the consultation.
He said: "Today at council, for understandable reasons, we had people who wished to oppose this. My message to them is fairly clear.
"By all means let's try and work with you in terms of the consultation, but at the end of the day, we're giving you a shield that will defend you against the predations of developers who could, if we just rejected this, leap in and come forward with their own plans and then appeal directly to the Secretary of State.
"This is about taking back control of the planning process rather than washing our hands of it."
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