Can you visualise how big the 240 hectares of green belt Trafford plan to release at Carrington is?  I was finding this tricky, not being familiar with hectares at all, to be honest.  So, for those of you coming along to the kite flying on Dainewell Park tomorrow, here is something to think about.

Dainewell Park is around 51.8 square metres in size.  This is just over 5 hectares (there are 10,000 square metres in a hectare). 

So the 240 hectares of green belt Trafford plans to release is the equivalent of over 46 (yes, 46) Dainewell Parks!

And when you add the green belt at Timperley Wedge, the total green belt loss for Trafford is 354 hectares – the equivalent of over 68 Dainewell Parks!!!

As an aside, the planned industrial and warehousing area in the GMSF for New Carrington is between 410,000 square metres and 900,000 square metres.  We believe this is floor space, rather than land mass but, nevertheless, it is interesting to note that, despite all the other industrial/warehousing units in the area (Trafford Park and Manchester Airport, to name but two), there is an expectation that the site can accommodate units (and the associated additional traffic) equivalent to between 7 and 17 Dainewell Parks.

If you don’t manage to join us at the kite flying tomorrow and are not familiar with hectares or Dainewell Park, I have my friend Dave to thank for showing me this feature on google maps.  If you right click you will see one of the options is to Measure Distance.  You can measure any area that you know and then, assuming you use the square metres measurement, divide the results by 10,000 to arrive at the number of hectares for the area you are considering.  This will give you an idea of the land mass being considered for green belt release.

Remember, just revising the GMSF to a 15 year plan would mean NO release of green belt anywhere in Greater Manchester.  Remember, we have a housing waiting list figure of 3,325, and even if this has doubled since the publication of the Trafford Housing Strategy, we do not need to release any green belt to satisfy those figures. 

So, when it comes down to the vote to approve the GMSF in Trafford, which of our politicians will be supporting the release of green belt the size of over 68 Dainewell Parks? 

And, even more importantly, will any of our politicians have taken strong action to protect our green belt before that vote?

Given they are OUR elected representatives, maybe we should ask them!