What Price West Midlands Green Belts?
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What Price West Midlands Green Belts? June 2007 Acknowledgements This report has been prepared by Peter Langley and Janine Bryant, with help from Gerald Kells, Malcolm and Patricia Kimber, Mark Sullivan and Phil Goode. We are grateful for advice from Graham Harrison. The section on the History of Green Belts in the West Midlands draws on Michael Law’s article in ‘Region and Renaissance’ (see references). The Green Arc Partnership have provided examples of positive improvements to the green belt. We are very grateful to Phil Jennings (www.pixelwizzard.com) for the design work. Photographs are by Peter Langley except where otherwise indicated. We are particularly grateful for the financial contribution from the Pailton and Monks Kirby area that made a major contribution to the preparation and publication of this report. Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire Burton Stafford upon Trent Shrewsbury Telford Cannock Shropshire Wolverhampton Walsall Nuneaton Birmingham Solihull Coventry Kidderminster Rugby Bromsgrove Kenilworth Redditch Leamington Spa Droitwich Warwick Leominster Worcester Warwickshire Herefordshire Stratford-upon-Avon Worcestershire Hereford What Price West Midlands Green Belts? Introduction For the last fifty years, green belts have acted as one of the We need to ensure that our green belts are fit for the next best known and most popular planning tools for protecting fifty years of strategic planning. And that means also giving our countryside. They still command widespread public greater attention to the quality of green belt land itself. support. Although we can never know for certain what would Green belts contain some of the most valued and accessible have happened in the West Midlands without them it is likely countryside in the West Midlands, areas such as the Clent that the geography of the region would be very different – Hills and paths such as the Beacon Way, but other parts are and not for the better. They have preserved sharp distinctions too much like sterile ‘no go areas’. We need to improve green between urban and rural areas, encouraged development in belts so that as well as preventing sprawl they contribute more cities and towns instead of allowing it to sprawl outwards, positively to the lifestyles of the people who live and work in and prevented towns and cities from coalescing and losing the areas they surround. their separate identities. Subsequent sections of this report look at the evolution Green belts work because they are straightforward, have of green belt policy, the history of green belts in the West understandable goals and are supported by political will. Midlands, successes and failures, and the role of particular Without them, the countryside round our cities would have elements of green belt policy. We conclude with some been prey to speculative development and sprawl. suggestions for the future. Yet today, in the twenty-first century, when green belts Most importantly the report demonstrates that the emphasis are needed more than ever, some commentators seem willing politicians in the West Midlands place on the regeneration of either to dispense with them altogether or treat them as a our cities and large towns, and on sensitive rural renaissance, mere short-term brake on development. They argue that the depends crucially on the existence of strong green belts. green belt is an impediment to fast moving development, but in fact the kind of free-for-all they favour, with very few planning controls, would come at the cost of the environment and, just as importantly, would undermine the seeds of urban renaissance in regions like ours. We are glad that the Government have withstood calls to amend green belt policy from the economist Kate Barker, but at the same time, we worry that they are pursuing other policies, such as very high housing figures, which threaten to overwhelm the capacity of our cities and undermine green belts by the back door. While the boundaries of the green belt may need to be adjusted occasionally for good reasons, local decision makers need to cure themselves of the damaging habit of whittling Woods, Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire away at the green belt whenever it suits them. Green belts are by far the most effective tool for creating the ‘fixed urban growth boundary’ referred to by Power and Houghton: ‘The future of cities lies in what we call ‘smart growth’. This means containing the expansion of cities, by creating a fixed urban growth boundary, and intensively regenerating existing neighbourhoods to reverse the flight of people, jobs and investment into land gobbling, congestion generating and environmentally damaging urban extensions. Cities have a pulse, a biorhythm based on their resource use, waste and dependence on natural capital. When they grow outwards, these patterns become overstretched.’ ‘JIGSAW CITIES’, BY ANNE POWER AND JOHN HOUGHTON Green belt east of Stourbridge ONE What Price West Midlands Green Belts? Green Belt Policy Many people think that once an area is designated as green Most green belts encircle whole towns and cities, although belt, no new building will ever be allowed there. The reality is that is not always the case, and some include green wedges, more complex and not always easy to interpret. which often reach into the heart of a town of city. Circular 42/55 invited local authorities to consider designating green belts. It was replaced by Planning Policy Policies for the Green Belt Guidance Note 2 (PPG2) in 1988, which was updated in 1995. As well as more general policies for the protection of However the fundamentals of Government policy on green the countryside there is a general presumption against belts have remained largely the same over its fifty year history. ‘inappropriate development’ in green belts. Such development should only be approved in ‘very special circumstances’. The The main aim of green belts is to prevent urban sprawl by interpretation of these two phrases is fundamental to the keeping land permanently open. PPG2 (para 1.5) describes its effective operation of green belt policy and has been hotly five purposes – contested in many individual cases. To check the unrestricted sprawl of larger built-up areas; New buildings will generally be ‘inappropriate’ in the green To prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one belt, but there is a list of important exceptions in PPG2: another; Buildings used for agriculture and forestry; To assist in safeguarding the countryside from Essential facilities for outdoor sport and recreation; encroachment; Cemeteries; To preserve the setting and special character of historic towns; and The limited extension, alteration or replacement of existing buildings; To assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Limited ‘infilling’ within existing villages; Green belts, once defined, may help achieve other goals Limited infilling or redevelopment of major existing – such as providing areas for sport and recreation, preserving developed sites – e.g. factories, power stations, airfields, attractive landscapes, supporting nature conservation and hospitals and educational facilities; retaining agricultural land or forestry – but these are not the Mining operations. primary purposes of the green belt. The Extent of the Green Belt Green belts account for about 12% of the area of England and just over 20% of the West Midlands. The overwhelming majority (about 78%) of green belt in England surrounds London and the six other major conurbations. Some other green belts surround smaller cities, but green belts have only rarely been used to protect free-standing historic towns. Perhaps the key phrase in PPG2 (para 2.1) is that ‘the essential characteristic of green belts is their permanence’. Green belts are not intended to appear and disappear at the drop of a hat. ‘Once the general extent of a green belt has been approved it should be altered only in exceptional circumstances’. Even the detailed boundaries of the green belt should only rarely be changed. Green belts are expected to be several miles wide and their boundaries should follow recognisable features such as roads, streams or woodland edges. Green belt south west of Stourbridge TWO What Price West Midlands Green Belts? PPG2 gives additional planning guidance on most of these categories, but cannot cover all eventualities. There remains a Wider Benefits of the Green Belt good deal of room for interpretation. Do sport and recreation Whatever the ‘official’ purpose and objectives of green facilities requiring large buildings significantly detract from belt policy, it is likely that green belts will in practice bring a the openness of the green belt? Should a new golf course be much wider range of benefits to the areas they cover and to allowed in the green belt even if its club house is as large as their surroundings. For example, in addition to their benefits several individual houses? What constitutes ‘limited infilling’ for local people, green belts may help to preserve the natural in villages and when is it an abuse? How can planners decide environment and the habitats of key species, providing a haven when redundant factories should be redeveloped and when for wildlife generally. They can protect ancient woodlands and not? And can land used for mineral working always be restored agricultural land. They can provide natural defence systems, to its former openness? for example against flooding, and can help to offset carbon emissions and pollution. They contribute to the tranquillity of an area, as CPRE’s recently published maps of tranquil areas throughout England show, and they can provide darker areas close to areas of concentrated light pollution at night. They make it easier for previously abandoned or misused land to be returned to nature. There is also growing evidence that ready access to the countryside around cities helps to relieve stress, and that people value the opportunity to escape the frenetic pace of life in large towns and cities.