Wirral Council’s plan to build 12,000 homes by 2035 is one step closer after it was voted through at a full council meeting last night.

All parties voted in favour of the plan, but many councillors voiced frustrations with it.

Cllr Ian Lewis, leader of the Tory opposition in Wirral Council, said for 16 years the council was required to have a Local Plan, but it did not.

For Cllr Lewis, that is why: “We now have 8797 families in this borough on the housing waiting list.

“At the same time, we discovered that £200m was waiting in the ministry of housing ready to support development in Wirral to bring brownfield sites back into use.

“All those could have been dealt with in the last 16 years. Labour’s response has been to do nothing. Instead, their big idea has been to build 160 houses in greenbelt land under their so-called golf resort in Hoylake.

“In November 2018 they were happy to build 6,000 houses on the greenbelt in this borough.”

For Cllr Lewis, the reason this plan has been dropped is Labour losing control of the council last March.

Labour now runs the authority as a minority administration and needs some votes from opposition parties to get policies such as the Local Plan through the chamber.

A Local Plan is a document which sets out how an area will be developed for a 15 year period.

The paper must specify how many homes will be built and the sites on which they will be built.

The plan for 12,000 won favour as it pledges to protect the green belt and build each and every home on brownfield sites, largely concentrated around Birkenhead and Wallasey.

Though many privately doubt the viability of building thousands of homes on brownfield land which will cost a huge amount to develop and is unlikely to deliver huge returns, councillors wanted to show their support to the cabinet’s ambition to protect the greenbelt.

Cllr Pat Hackett, leader of the council, said he was “extremely confident” all 12,000 homes will be built on brownfield sites.

But much dissent was voiced over the 12,000 figure.

Tory councillor Geoffrey Watt drew the biggest cheer of the night, when addressing what he called the “elephant in the room”.

He said while the 12,000 figure was calculated using a government formula the council could have proposed their own lower figure based on demographic data.

Cllr Pat Cleary, the leader of the Greens on Wirral Council, also said the council should come up with an alternative figure.

They were two of many at the meeting who made this point, but the cabinet member for the Local Plan, Cllr Anita Leech, stuck to her figure.

She said the council has taken legal advice from a QC who told them that using the 12,000 figure is the “best option”.

But Cllr Leech also said if there are “special circumstances” worthy of reducing this number “I welcome them”.

But in her view changing the 12,000 figure will do nothing to bolster the brownfield first approach, which is a “fantastic” opportunity to regenerate the east of the borough.

Cllr Leech was keen to praise councillors across all parties for working together on the plan, telling them she was proud of their work and was ready to give people across the borough the chance to contribute their views in the public consultation.

Her comments reflected a sense of the council coming together last night, but one sign that this is just the calm before the storm came at the very end of the meeting.

As the Mayor thanked the audience for their attendance, one man shouted out: “It won’t be like that in July if there’s greenbelt to be built on.”

Wirral Council’s vote last night means the outline Local Plan will now go forward to an eight week public consultation, which runs from January 27 to March 23.