Greenbelt Land

The media and press often talk about Greenbelt and Greenfield sites in the same breath. These terms, however, are not interchangeable as now commonly believed and a Greenbelt and Greenfield site are not the same thing.

What is the difference between Greenfield and Greenbelt?

A Greenfield site is simply one that has not previously developed, so this covers farmland, agricultural land, parks etc.

Greenbelt is a specifically defined area of land around and existing developed area (usually a town or city), with a specific purpose. It is always identified in a Council's Structure plan and its precise boundaries will be defined in their local plan.

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So what is Greenbelt?

The first official proposal to establish a Greenbelt or 'girdle of open space was made in 1935 by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1935. They wanted to reserve a supply of public open space and recreational areas.

In 1947, the Town and Country Planning Act allowed local authorities to include Greenbelts in their development plan. But Greenbelt was really established in 1955 when an historic circular from the Government invited local planning authorities outside of London to consider the creation of Greenbelts.

Greenbelts are now approved through local planning authorities' Structure Plans. It now covers approximately 1,556,000 hectares, about 12 per cent of England. There are 14 separate Green Belts, varying in size from 486,000 hectares around London to just 700 hectares at Burton-on-Trent.

Purposes of including land in Green Belts

There are five purposes of including land in Green Belts:

- to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas

- to prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another

- to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment

- to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns

- to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.

Planning Policy Guidance 2: Green belts

PPG2 is the Government Policy Regulation that controls the use of greenbelt. It allows local authorities to redefine Greenbelt if necessary. It recommends that authorities take a long-term prospective when defining the Greenbelt and consider sustainable development issues.

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