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.