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.