Residents in Saddleworth will vote on Thursday, December 10 on whether the parish's neighbourhood plan should become a formal planning document, the Saddleworth Independent reports. The plan has taken nine years to prepare and sets out how the area should develop up to 2045.

If it is backed at the referendum, the document would have to be taken into account when planning decisions affecting Saddleworth are made. Councillor Barbara Beeley, who chairs Saddleworth Parish Council, said: "There is always more that can be done, but all of the policies in the plan are specifically intended to make things better now and in the future."