On the 60th anniversary of Green Belt becoming government policy, a poll commissioned by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) finds that nearly two-thirds of people surveyed believe that Green Belt land should not be built on.
The Ipsos MORI poll, published today, shows that 64% of people agree the Green Belt should be protected, while just 17% disagree. Such strong support for Green Belt is demonstrated across a range of different groups, including people with children aged 5 and under, those renting from a local authority, and those on low incomes. And more than six out of ten people (62%) who live in towns and cities support the protection of the Green Belt – a finding that casts doubt on the claims of critics that Green Belts do not benefit people who live in urban areas.
The anniversary poll comes just weeks after the Government re-emphasised its support for Green Belt protection at the launch of its Productivity Plan. But despite this support and existing protections, local communities have repeatedly found themselves fighting proposals to build on Green Belt land. CPRE research shows that 226,000 houses are currently planned for Green Belt land.
In response to this threat, CPRE is launching a new campaign, Our Green Belt, which calls on the Government to:
- be more specific on the limited circumstances in which Green Belt boundaries can be changed through local plans;
- call in or direct local authorities to refuse damaging developments in the Green Belt that are not identified in existing local or neighbourhood plans; and
- target public funding, through organisations such as Natural England and Local Enterprise Partnerships, to increase the quality of and access to Green Belt.
For more detail, please visit CPRE's national website
In Gloucestershire, a Gloucester and Cheltenham Green Belt was created in 1968 to maintain open land between the two urban areas.
Vice-Chairman of CPRE Gloucestershire, Richard Lloyd said: “Removing land from the Green Belt for development must always be the last resort and kept to the absolute minimum and fully justified by 'exceptional circumstances'. In our response to the emerging Joint Core Strategy for the area, we have accepted that well designed compact urban extensions to Gloucester and Cheltenham located in a way which maintains a clear separation between the two urban areas would provide a more sustainable solution for accommodating future development requirements than a more dispersed pattern of development, and that 'exceptional circumstances' may have been demonstrated in this case. However, before contemplating any release of precious green belt land, we are pressing for full use to be made of previously developed land and under-used land and buildings."
