(Green [Belt]) Fade to Grey …

As planning application decisions by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) and appeal Inspectors start to rack up in favour of housing schemes in the Grey Belt, so we have begun to deliver our first Grey Belt Studies for local communities.

What have we learned about the Grey Belt so far? 

Stoke Poges and The Ivers in Buckinghamshire considered the impact of Green Belt changes in their recent NPs

Well, first, there is going to be a lot of land that meets the new tests around even small Green Belt villages located in good public transport corridors and with centrally located publicly accessible, ‘doorstep’ type, green spaces. Probably not quite the same around towns (now synonymous with ‘large built up areas’) but even there the broad application of the tests will open up a lot of land, as we’re seeing with the recent decisions.

Second, many brownfield (also known as previously developed land) sites in rural areas are remote, legacy industrial units in unsustainable locations. Proposals are therefore more likely to benefit from the reworded NPPF §154g on exceptions to inappropriate development in the Green Belt.

Third, it means that LPAs and neighbourhood plan examiners will now have to let communities use their plans to manage the much greater scope for appropriate development in the Green Belt. Both have consistently argued this is either contrary to national guidance on what is deemed strategic policy or unnecessary because the Green Belt designation is already sufficient.

Fourth, there is definitely value in studying how the sustainable location and access to green space variables play out around towns and villages. With a sharp enough focus and access to very local data, this can be done at a much finer grain than LPA-wide Green Belt Studies of the past. A grain that can equate ‘assessment area’ with development site in a way not possible with the conventional ‘land parcel’ approach to fit more closely with where the NPPF and PPG are now at.

Finally, it seems our work on neighbourhood plans like The Ivers and Stoke Poges in Bucks was prescient. Both were able to argue that they should and could plan positively for development proposals they anticipated in their Green Belts coming through the various NPPF (now) §154 exception routes. Their mix of well-evidenced Local Gaps, Key Views & Vistas and Corridors of Significance landscape character designations provide the LPA with an additional means of managing in what is now Grey Belt.

Does your parish need to consider their grey belt position?

If your parish would like to proactively consider the implications of the change in policy for your area, consider commissioning a Grey Belt Study - contact us for more details.