Campaigning for the countryside  - its landscape, rural communities, agriculture, and wildlife

Cambridge Green Belt

 

 

The Cambridge Green Belt was created in 1954.  The current purposes (set out in Cambridge Local Plan 2006) are to:

• Preserve the unique character of Cambridge as a compact, dynamic city with a thriving historic centre;
• Maintain and enhance the quality of its setting; and
• Prevent communities in the environs of Cambridge from merging into one another and with the City.

 

The inner and outer edges of the Green Belt were reviewed in 2006.  Some parts of the Belt have become so narrow that they are ‘corridors’, ‘fingers’ or ‘wedges’ extending radially towards the City.

 

Parts of the Green Belt were taken out to accommodate current or future development: e.g. Orchard Park (Northern Fringe), Clay Farm, Addenbrooke’s Medical Campus, Trumpington Meadows, Glebe Farm, Cambridge Airport, North West Cambridge.  Outer boundaries were extended in the south.  We believe that the boundaries need permanence and should not be reviewed (altered) for a further thirty years.  We therefore in November 2009 told the East of England Regional Assembly EERA (in our response to the review of the East of England Plan) that the Green Belt has been subjected to such intense scrutiny in recent years that a period of stability is now required.  

 

We believe there should be an element of permanence (up to 25 or 30 years) before reviewing the boundaries.

 

A two-page document giving Key Facts about the Cambridge Green Belt can be found here.

 

 

 

 

Peterborough Green Belt

 

Peterborough is a fast developing, dynamic city in the north of the area and an integral part of the London, Stansted, Peterborough Growth Corridor.

 

Its Sustainable Community Strategy for 2008-2021 promotes 'growing the right way for a bigger and better Peterborough' and over the next 11 years it is planning to build 25,000 new homes and create 20,000 new jobs, increasing its growing Environmental Business Sector to national importance.

 

Peterborough will embrace future growth in the next round of the Regional Spatial Strategy proposals, but must ensure it is in the most sustainable places.

 

The proposed Core Strategy is focusing on the preferential housing development of brownfield land within the urban area, eventually backed up by sustainable Urban Extensions to meet these testing targets.  The Greater Peterborough Area is in fact 80% rural and boasts a large number of attractive villages in a range of sizes, protected from over-development by the Spatial Strategy CS1, proposed Core Strategy.

 

However, in the future, there will be an even greater demand on the areas of countryside between the villages and the urban fringe and this, we believe, needs the protection of a 'Green Belt'.  This can be a useful 'place shaping tool' as it encourages the compactness of the urban area and protects the Landscape Character of the rural areas close by.

See May 2010 Press Release

Green Belt Policy

 

 

Planning Policy Guidance No.2 (PPG2) gives for purposes for including land in a Green Belt:

 

- 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; and

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

 

There are 14 green belts in England ( click here ) with a total area of 1,619,727ha (13% of England’s total land area).

 

The Cambridge Green Belt was created in 1954.  For further information click here.  The Branch scrutinises all suggestions by local authorities for any changes, believing that there should be an element of permanence (up to 25 or 30 years) before reviewing the boundaries.

 

We think there is merit in Peterborough having a Green Belt.  See here for further information on our ideas.

 

CPRE and Natural England produced a joint report on the 14 Green Belts in England.  Click here to see full report.

  

A summary report is available here.