Green Belt is one of the most popular and successful planning policies
on the statute book.
Green Belts are areas of countryside around our major cities where
development can only take place under ‘exceptional circumstances’.
In the West Midlands there are three Green Belts. One round Birmingham,
the Black Country and Coventry, (which extends out as far as town
such Rugby, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Alcester, Kidderminster, Bridgnorth,
Telford, Rugeley, Lichfield and Nuneaton), one round the North Staffordshire
conurbation and a few patchy areas around Burton.
As well as forming rings round our cities, they include important
green wedges stretching into the cities, for example, from Lichfield
to the Sandwell Valley.
Our Green Belts include some of the most beautiful and accessible
countryside in the region, for example, the Clent Hills. However
the role of Green Belts is primarily to stop our cities sprawling
outwards, as they have in areas of countries like America and Australia.
They help to ensure our cities are compact and sustainable, including
reducing the amount of travel (and hence Carbon dioxide emissions).
But Green Belt is always under threat. In the past, for example,
the growth of the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham Airport
have eaten deeply into the Meriden Gap, the thin wedge of Green
Betl between Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry. The m6 Toll was
built entirely on Green Belt land.
Now there are new threats. The greatest is the return of very high
housing numbers which threatens
to compromise Green Belt around many towns including Lichfield,
Redditch and Warwick. Proposals for large megadepots
would also be likely to be built in Green Belt because of the presence
of the M6 Toll, itself a major incursion into Green Belt. Plans
for Strategic Park and Ride sites also include Green Belt proposals,
such as Brinsford, near Wolverhampton.
CPRE believes such proposals should be resisted and the high standard
of proof needed to build on Green Belt should be maintained. We
also appreciate that not all Green Belt in the West Midlands is
of the same ecological or amenity value. We would like to see those
areas improved for everyone’s benefit, provided it is not
achieved as a quid pro quo for relaxing planning constraints in
the Green Belt.
The Phase 2 Review of RSS is considering these issues and CPRE
will be presenting evidence to the Public Inquiry in April 2009
on protecting the Green Belt.
As part of the RSS Phase 3 review the need
for a specific Green Belt policy for the region will be reviewed
but this will cover environmental and amenity improvements to the
Green Belt. It will not deal with the strategic issues of Green
Belt boundaries. CPRE support improvements to the Green Belt which
improves its benefits for nature and make it easier for people to
access the countryside but this should not be done in a way which
allows innapropriate development or leads to ‘second grade’
Green Belt.
CPRE WM has produced it own detailed
report on Green Belt which explains the history, policy and
scope of Green Belt in more detail.
Note: Green Belt is commonly confused with green field land.
The later is land which has not been previously developed, such
as open fields and woodland, wherever it is. Green Belt is a specificaly
designated area and may itself include land which is not green field,
for example, old hospital sites. On such sites redevelopment is
often restricted to the footprint of existing buildings.
15.01.09
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