A legal challenge against a recently-approved development masterplan to build 165,000 homes in Greater Manchester is gathering pace. Greater Manchester Combined Authority has confirmed it has received a pre-action protocol letter, part of the process for a prospective claimant before taking legal action, with regard to its Places For Everyone (PfE) plan.

The plan was first proposed in 2016 as the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF). Its latest, approved incarnation is Places For Everyone, a strategic plan over the next 15 years or so, which has the backing of nine of the ten Greater Manchester councils, bar Stockport who opted out of the scheme in 2021.

The plan is designed to promote growth in the region through jobs and housing. As well as home-building, the plan earmarks significant areas for industrial and business development, some of which is on current green belt land.

The PfE ‘plan of nine’ was subject to an inspection from the government, the results of which were released in February. Inspectors found PfE ‘provides an appropriate basis for the planning of the districts of Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan’ after modifications were made.

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All the nine of the councils have now ratified the plan. However, it has come under fire from numerous pressure groups and politicians across Greater Manchester.

They have come together under the wider Save Greater Manchester’s Greenbelt (SGMGB) group, who are set to mount the legal challenge to the plan. SGMGB say they will fight for their member group’s areas to save ‘beautiful and much treasured green belt that is currently under threat from developers’ shovels’.

In a recent update, highlighting their fundraising battle for the legal challenge, the group said: “Greater Manchester’s green belt, a vital shield for our environment and communities, is under threat. The plan proposes releasing over 2,000 hectares of environmentally-precious, ecologically-rich green spaces for development, jeopardising nature’s recovery, climate mitigation and our health and well-being.

“Save Greater Manchester’s Green Belt has been forced to take legal action to challenge this unnecessary destruction. We, and our followers, strongly believe the plan weakens vital environmental protections and prioritises green belt development over brownfield regeneration.

“This is a fight for the future of our region’s health, natural environment, and green spaces.” One area where opposition to the plans has been significant is Bury, where housing allocations will build on significant areas of green belt land.

The plan allows for 3,500 homes to be built in the Elton reservoir area, 1,250 in Walshaw and 1,350 in the Simister and Bowlee area. Speaking at the meeting which adopted Places For Everyone in March, council leader Eamonn O’Brien said: “There’s no question about it, this decision is one which divides opinion and causes upset, concern and anger. Disagreement on this issue does not mean dismissal of the points people make.

“We believe this plan must be adopted as our country faces one of the worst housing crises in modern history.” He said that ‘brownfield only’ housing development was not the answer in Bury as there was not enough supply.

He added: “We must have a plan which addresses the lack of supply in housing. This plan does that while doing as much as it can to protect as much green belt as possible.”

The Bury Folk Keep It Green oppose the plans in Bury. A statement on their website said the ‘best way of challenging this will be by way of a regional challenge against the whole plan by this group in conjunction with all the other Save Greater Manchester’s Greenbelt groups’.

They estimate the cost to take GMCA to task with judicial review proceedings will be £100,000. A GMCA spokesman said they were considering the legal letter and will respond in due course.

They added that as the matter is now an ongoing legal process they could not comment further.

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes his team are one of the Premier League's great entertainers at present, even though they are struggling to win games.

United drew 1-1 with second-bottom Burnley on Saturday after goalkeeper Andre Onana conceded a late penalty which allowed Zeki Amdouni to equalise from the spot.

It means Ten Hag’s side have recorded just one win inside 90 minutes since the middle of March and have taken seven points from their past six league matches.

In total, there have been 38 goals scored in United’s past eight fixtures.

"We are one of the most dynamic and entertaining teams in the league at this moment," Ten Hag told BBC Match of the Day.

"We are creating loads of chances by playing good football. Every team gives up opportunities. But when it is up to us, it is weird."

United remain in sixth spot, one point ahead of Newcastle, in the battle for a place in next season’s Europa League.

Ten Hag defended his decision to take off Rasmus Hojlund and Kobbie Mainoo after 65 minutes, which sparked boos from home supporters, and warned fans need to show patience after the Red Devils targeted younger players last summer.

"It was a high intensity game, our third in quick succession, and Burnley had days off, so it was totally logical to bring players off who are very young and in their first years of the Premier League - and I don’t even talk about the injury risk," he said.

"Rasmus Hojlund had injuries and Kobbie Mainoo had bad injuries, so I protected them. I understand fans want to see the skills those players bring but I have to do my job. It was the right decision."

Ten Hag suggested an inexperienced squad can lead to inconsistent performances - comparing his team to 2004-05 when a United side in transition, with young players including Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo starting to come to the fore, finished third in the league, were FA Cup runners-up and League Cup semi-finalists.

"They forget, 2004-05, they also didn’t play that great football," he said. "They are building and it takes time but everyone forgets, even the players who were in the team, they forget they were struggling. You need time to progress."

There is a realism inside Old Trafford just now.

With current Premier League profit and sustainability regulations remaining in force next season, it is known United’s margins are tight, even if, as expected, they sell a homegrown player in Mason Greenwood.

Even Jadon Sancho, another player likely to leave, will not generate significant profits given United paid Borussia Dortmund £73m for him in 2021 and he still has two years left on his contract.

It could, therefore, be the 2025-26 campaign before United are ready to challenge in the way Sir Jim Ratcliffe envisaged when he took co-ownership of the club on Christmas Eve.

Whether Ten Hag remains in place to execute the plan beyond the FA Cup final on 25 May is open to question.

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Erik ten Hag has pleaded for "patience" after it was confirmed that Manchester United have missed out on a place in the Premier League's top four.

United's 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday, combined with Aston Villa's 2-2 draw with Chelsea, means Ten Hag's team can finish no higher than fifth this season.

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Speaking after the draw with Burnley, Ten Hag, who arrived from Ajax in 2022, asked fans and the club's owners for more time to get things right.

"We have some very young players and that is why we built this club back and that takes time," Ten Hag said.

"We built it by bringing in young players like Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Højlund and Kobbie Mainoo and they are all in the first season of Premier League. The Premier League gets more and more intense year by year.

"Those players have to adjust and that takes time. I am very impatient but we need patience."

Ten Hag also pointed to United's past as proof that patience can pay off. Sir Alex Ferguson finished third in the 2004-05 season with a team built around youngsters Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo but by 2008 they had been crowned Premier League champions twice and won the Champions League.

"The great Man United teams they also forget -- 2004-05 -- they didn't play that great football," Ten Hag said.

"They were building and it takes time but everyone forgets, even the players who were in the team. They forget they were struggling and needed time to progress."

Following the draw with Burnley, Ten Hag was also forced to address the fan reaction to his decision to substitute Mainoo. The teenager was replaced in the 65th minute, prompting a number of supporters inside Old Trafford to boo when he number was held up.

"They are fans but I have to manage the team," Ten Hag said.

"You see what the game needs and by that time some freshness and also tactical wise to bring a player on who can keep the ball and is creative.

"Kobbie, a very young player, was subbed and it was the right decision and you can see the benefit from bringing the fresh legs of Scott [McTominay].

"I understand that fans wants to see the skills those players are bringing and contribute to the team, I understand that, but I have to do my job and that is the right decision."

Serving good things all day long, this smart Manchester canteen is a welcome haven for one and all

Medlock Canteen, 5 Owen Street, Manchester M15 4YB (0161 723 3394). Starters £4-£13, mains £10-£45, desserts £8-£12, wines (500ml) from £18

Towards the bottom of the main course options at Medlock Canteen in Manchester is a dish that reads “staff dinner (limited availability)”. It costs £10. I ask our waiter what it is. “Exactly what it sounds like,” Tom says, cheerily. “The staff food is so much better here than I’m used to. Usually, it’s chicken nuggets. Not here. Today it was a pea risotto. We’ve had leek and bacon pie, and a cottage pie. It’s great.” They just happen to make enough to sell a few portions to the punters, too, though today they’ve already run out. No worries. There are other things worth ordering.

It is a quiet and sweet way by which to make a statement. A lot of restaurants have abused the language of egalitarianism over the years, to signpost that they are democratising the whole socially stratified business of eating out, when their gilded ambitions and appetites are very much elsewhere. Marco Pierre White’s second restaurant was a place called the Canteen, when it was nothing of the sort. It opened in the 90s and was co-owned by Michael Caine, because the god of British film stars wanted somewhere to eat. It won a Michelin star for a humble menu of oysters with champagne sabayon and escalope of seabass with a parsley crust. Likewise, the equally starred River Café is many delightful things, but a caff it is not.

The Medlock Canteen, named after the river overlooked by the Deansgate Square development of which it is a part, is also not a greasy spoon. But there really is something thoroughly come-one-come-all about its “morning-noon-night” proposition. It’s there in the tea towels for napkins and the wipe-clean tables, the concrete shell of a room with its midcentury modern wood cladding and the furniture. The room has a smart, utilitarian look, aided by the light green floor, the colour of chocolate lime sweets, which hints gently at the institutional. The oxblood leather banquettes remind me of the cherished 12-hole DMs I wore when I was a flat-footed youth.

Mostly, though, it lies in the menu. You can come here for beans on toast and a “bottomless batch brew” first thing. You can stay for a steak sandwich or something bigger from the rotisserie. What you will not get are gimmicks or spins or, God help us, twists. Nothing is twisted. Nothing is spun. There’s nothing intrinsically special about the offering at the Medlock Canteen and that’s what makes it so special. What you read on the menu is exactly what you get: a set of appealing, familiar dishes that are the best versions of themselves.

It’s a departure for chef Sam Grainger. At Belzan and Madre in Liverpool, he offers complexity and whizz-bangery. His team in the kitchen here worked previously at Manteca in London, doing bold and radical things to Roman classics. Now they are proving that, while restless flights of imagination can be great, simple, good taste and technique can be better. We have perfectly made duck rillettes with a heap of pickled vegetables heavy with tarragon, alongside a well-oiled slab of sourdough toast. There are fat, salty anchovies to be coiled on to bread and potato croquettes, at £3 each, perched on a dollop of truffled mayo, showered with nutty Alpine cheese and sprinkled with chives.

We move on to half a rotisserie chicken for £14 and it is everything those words promise and don’t always deliver. No special rubs or sauces. Just roast chicken, rested long enough for the meat to start shrugging itself off the bones. The skin is crisp and salty. But what makes it is what they call chicken jus and what I’m going to call gravy, what with this being Manchester and all. It is dark and sticky and deeply savoury. It is tip-the-platter-and-spoon-it-away good. It is sipping gravy, which is the best kind of gravy. Even if you don’t order any chicken, order that and pour it over everything. Pour it over a friend.

There’s a charcoal-grilled fish of the day, which this evening is a whole lemon sole for £24. It’s a seriously skilled piece of fish grilling. The lightly gelatinous skin on the darker side, where the thicker fillets are, has been gently grilled so the pearlescent flesh comes away easily. The white side has been given a spanking from the flames and is dark and blistered. We have a pot of salsa verde to go with it, which is salty and sharp and the perfect foil to the fish. Alongside, there is a pillow of mash flavoured with beurre noisette, and carrots glazed with honey and grain mustard, a burst of Christmas amid the whisper of spring. The sides also include fried eggs “served all day”. For all your fried egg needs.

A rhubarb pie arrives hot from the deep fryer, crusted with rhubarb-flavoured sugar. It floats in the middle of a thick, frothy marsh of custard. It is a school dinner pudding, raised to a place of glory and wonder. You could easily get yourself through double maths thinking it. There’s a pistachio frangipane tart, deep-filled and with a crisp surface that gives way to squidgy depths. On the side is a dollop of granny smith purée. Across the top is a white quilt of crème fraîche. It is balanced and very satisfying.

Medlock describes itself as a cross between a French bistro and an American diner. The references are smart. Take a seat at the counter and, in the falling light of a Manchester dusk, you could easily form a tableau that the painter Edward Hopper, the chronicler of the diner, would recognise. Or head to the entirely French wine list, with a strong offering by the 500ml carafe, and you could act out the Parisian part with a glass of sauvignon from Bordeaux.

Manchester has been in the grip of a building boom for a while now, which has divided local opinion. The way the priapic tower blocks pierce the cloud-quilted skies encourages questions about what exactly these property moguls are compensating for. Sharp, modern complexes like this aren’t exactly warm and inviting. The space occupied by Medlock Canteen is so over-engineered that, unless you put your back into it, you might find pulling open the huge glass door tricky. Often staff scuttled forwards to finish the job for baffled customers. Rest assured, even if the area doesn’t feel finished, even if it lacks anything approaching human scale, there is at least the thoroughly humane embrace of the Medlock Canteen.

News bites

Birmingham-based chef Brad Carter, who closed his flagship restaurant Carters of Moseley last year with plans to relocate into central Birmingham, has announced a new project. This summer he is opening Undercroft, a restaurant in the crypt of Saint George’s, a church in London’s Mayfair. Dishes will include wild garlic chicken toast to start, followed by Tamworth pork with creamed snails and BBQ aged duck. Meanwhile, the rest of his team are running a venture inside 103 Colmore Row, a private members’ club in Birmingham.

It has become a tradition that this column announces the start each year of the Streetsmart campaign which, in the run-up to Christmas, raises funds to tackle homelessness across the UK by putting a voluntary £1 levy on the bill of every table at hundreds of participating restaurants. It’s delightful to report that for the first time in its 25-year history the most recent campaign raised more than £1m. It is, of course, also depressing that such a campaign is needed at all. Visit streetsmart.org.uk.

Early tickets have gone on sale for the Dorset Seafood Festival, which takes place this year across the weekend of 7 and 8 September on the Weymouth Peninsula. The event will raise funds for the Fishermen’s Mission and will include a mixture of food stalls, chefs’ demos and hands-on cooking workshops. At dorsetseafood.co.uk.

Email Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or follow him on X @jayrayner1