Help us save our green belts

by Estelle Taylor, CPRE National Office

In this, the 50th anniversary year of a Government circular encouraging local authorities to look at establishing Green Belts, CPRE is running a Green Belt campaign. It is interesting to note that the first official proposal made by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee was in 1935 and said "to provide a reserve supply of public open spaces and of recreational areas and to establish a green belt or girdle of open space".

Green Belts are one of the most powerful, effective environmental tools we have and they have helped to stop cities from sprawling into the countryside and from merging into each other and have helped to encourage the renewal of city centres. But Green Belts offer us more than a way to fight sprawl. If we improve their quality and quantity, make it easier for people to access them and encourage farmers to maintain them, they could bring even greater health, social, recreational, and quality of life benefits.

For that to happen, they need to continue to exist. There is great pressure currently to build houses, universities, stadiums and runways on Green Belts, which stop Green Belt land from fulfilling its role of providing permanent open land between towns.

Did you know that Hampshire has only one Green Belt that stretches from the south coast at Milford on Sea, to Barton on Sea, to the Dorset Border, then south of Ringwood, from the new New Forest National Boundary to the County Boundary at the edge of Lymington? We need to identify more, so start looking!

We want to send a strong message to the Government that it needs to reassert the importance of Green Belts, commit to strengthening Green Belt policy and create more Green Belts, so that more people are able to benefit from them.

What can you do? The May issue of the CPRE's Countryside Voice, free to members, contains a card for you to fill in. We hope you'll find a moment to do so. We want as many people as possible to fill it in so that we send a strong message to the Government that people care about Green Belts, want them to be protected and enhanced and would like to see more Green Belts. Campaign Leaflets which will help you and others to understand Green Belt policy will be available soon.

If you would like to receive a leaflet then contact Pam Mason at the Branch Office on 01962 843655 or admin@cprehampshire.org.uk.

May 2005