Aims of the 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 • To assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.

Jacob Rees Mogg Describes Green Belt as a Corset

At an IEA think tank event Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg described the green belt as a corset, and seems keen to start building on it. A corset of course is only a problem, if you have an ever expanding waistline, and thanks to politicians like him adding millions of people to the population, in the last few decades, all of England's towns and cities are no longer big enough. His seems to be to ignorant of why they were created in the first place.

Do you think the Tories would be so keen to build on the green belt if many of them were not going to make millions of £ from land that gets planning permission, rather than just be agricultural land?

Begbroke & Yarnton Green Belt

Photos from the Begbroke & Yarnton Green Belt Campaign. This area of green belt keeps villages north of Oxford City as seperate places. Currently there is an attempt to remove the land's greenbelt status, so up to 4,400 homes can be built, which would join up the three places as one. (4,400 homes will likely mean approx 6,000 cars and 10,000 people.)

In the 2011 census Begbroke had a population of 783. The village has a parish church with a history stretching back to the 12th century. The village hall has bowling and cricket greens. Yarnton's population in the 2011 census was 2,545. This historic village has a manor house, that dates back to the Norman era. St Bartholomew, the parish church was rebuilt in the 13th century. Inside there is remains of wall paintings dating from the 14th century.

Kidlington, the largest of the settlements has a population of about 13,000. It was mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086. St Mary the Virgin Church in the village was built in 1220.

The land targeted for housing is a mix of arable land, grazing pastures and native deciduous trees and hedges. The butterfly above is a Speckled Wood.

Here is a video of the local councillors as they vote in favour of the plans to build on the greenbelt, which would merge the villages for the first time ever in approximately 1000 years.

Begbroke & Yarnton Green Belt campaign website https://www.ourgreenbelt.uk/

Green belt - Cheltenham Gloucester

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

The historic spa town of Cheltenham and the city of Gloucester have expanded so much they now nearly form one joined up urban area. If you look at the highlighted area, at its thinnest point, there is just two farm fields seperating them.

5000 Hectares of Green belt lost 2017 - 2018 in England

5,000 hectares of green belt across England between March 2017 and March 2018 has been lost,according to government statistics. This is one of the largest losses in many years. To help put this figure in context, the city of Leicester is 7,300 hectares in size. The city of Bath is 2,900 hectares in size. The city of Norwich is 3,902 hectares in size. The city of Oxford is 4,559 hectares in size.

So in just 12 months the total amount of green belt being built on is equivalent to adding a city the size of Oxford to England.

Green belt - Bristol Bath

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

The historic Georgian city of Bath is one of the most popular city with tourists, in the UK. It is not far from Bristol, the largest city in South West England. The satelitte image shows three areas of green space that prevent them merging into one large urban space. Keynsham and Saltford have very small areas currently stopping them from joining Bristol urban sprawl. The distance from the centre of Bath to the centre of Saltford in the west, is 6.3 miles, so it is likely the largest red highlighted green area is about 3 miles wide.

Green belt - Newcastle Sunderland

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

The North East cities of Newcastle Upon Tyne and Sunderland have merged together along with smaller towns such as Gateshead, Washington, West Boldon etc. A line of  isolated green spaces, break up Wearside and Tyneside to an extent, but they are like holes in Swiss Cheese, and fail to keep the two areas as seperate conurbations. With better planning a real green belt of land, along the route of the highlighted red areas, could have ensured they did not become one large urban sprawl. On the plus side, this large conurbation does have considerable distances of countryside to the north, south and west.

Green belt - West Midlands

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

Birmingham, the UK's second largest city makes up a large part of a huge urban area in the West Midlands. Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, Dudley, West Bromwich, Smethwick and Brierly Hill all form one large urban area, with no green belt seperating them, as individual places. Coventry, a city to the south east of Birmingham is the only place which does. There is about 9 miles of open countryside, between the city and the large urban area to its north west. 

The urban sprawl stretches for over 25 miles from Marston Green in the south west to Wolverhampton in the north west. Coleshill on the eastern edge to Stourbridge in the west is approximately 30 miles.

Green belt - Edinburgh Glasgow - Central Belt

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

The capital of Scotland, Edinburgh and Scotland's largest city, Glasgow are both at the same lattitude, and with various towns between they form, what has become known as the Central Belt. This is Scotland's most populated area. As the satellite image covers a large area, it is from higher up than some of the images of other places featured eg. Leeds - Bradford, so the grey merges more with the green. However, the red areas were completed with a closer zoom for accuracy. They are the only farmland spaces in the Central Belt with few houses. Apart from these highlighted areas it really is a continuous belt of urbanisation from the west coast of Scotland, to the east coast.

To the north there is also another expanding urban belt stretching north east from Glasgow, to Cumbernauld, then there is some green space, before Falkirk. This area along with the other green areas in the central belt, will need to be protected if there is to be a wildlife corridor that joins southern Scotland with the rest of Scotland.

Green belt - Portsmouth Southampton

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

The south coast cities of Portsmouth and Southampton now just about join up as one large urban area. Travelling west from Portsmouth through Portchester, then the town of Fareham, then Titchfield, Park Gate and then Burlesdon on the outskirts of Southampton, will mean a journey of 19.5 miles through residential areas. If the journey was done, a bit further to the south, through Lee on Solent, you would go through a few miles of farm fields, to the south of Park Gate and Titchfield.

Green belt Leeds - Bradford

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

You might have heard of Leeds-Bradford Airport, which might be a clue that these two cities in Yorkshire are close to each other, if they share an airport. In fact the two cities are now completely joined as one large urban conurbation. They are linked by Pudsey in the north, and Morley / Drighlington in the south. The green area to the north of Drighlington does ensure the two cities are not completely joined up. Both cities have had large scale migration over the last 50 years. Bradford's population is currently 534,000, about 30% are from immigrant backgrounds from Pakistan etc (2011 census). The total population for this West Yorkshire urban area is 2.3 million.

Green belt Liverpool - Manchester

* Areas highlighted in red do not show officially designated green belt, but green space separating conurbations. However, it is likely some or all of the space highlighted will be green belt.

* City centres tend to be lighter in colour in satellite images. The surburbs tend to show as dark grey, probably due to all the slate coloured house roofs.

* Click on the image for a larger version.

* The areas were highlighted, often after zooming in closer to see where suburbs ended. In the screengrabs of this ratio it isnt always quite as clear.

Liverpool and Manchester are two of the largest cities in Northern England. Here we can see in 2018 that it is possible to travel all the way from the outskirts of east Manchester, or Stockport in the south to Liverpool with only three slim green spaces. Warrington in the middle of the two cities, means there is an urbanised sprawl of 35 miles wide. The urbanisation is similar travelling north. Warrington, St Helens and Wigan are all just about merged into one large urbanised area of 25 miles.

New Greenbelt blog

The green belt news blog aims to provide facts, news and info about the UK green belts. These are green spaces surrounding towns and cities, they were put in place to prevent urban sprawl and provide easy access to wildlife and nature for city dwellers.