GLOUCESTER/CHELTENHAM GREEN BELT

CRITERIA FOR ANY GREEN BELT REVIEW

 

STATEMENT BY CPRE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BRANCH

November 2005

 

Background

 

The South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) is in preparation.  This will replace the Gloucestershire Structure Plan Second Alteration, and the Third Alteration if this completed and adopted.  Under the proposals in the emerging RSS, the Cheltenham and Gloucester Principal Urban Areas (PUAs) are likely to be required to accommodate a large proportion of anticipated employment and housing growth in Gloucestershire in the period to 2026.

 

While the first priority should be to locate development within the existing built up areas, to redevelop brownfield sites and to redevelop other areas in need of regeneration, the scale of development likely by 2026 and the need to provide sufficient affordable housing to meet local needs suggests that some green field development will be required.

 

Preparatory work in Gloucestershire for the RSS, in the form of the Gloucester/Cheltenham Joint Study Area exercise, has included a Strategic Reassessment of the current Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt.  Work towards the Third Alteration of the Gloucestershire Structure Plan also recognised the need to look at the Green Belt.  In his report on the Examination in Public of the proposed Structure Plan Third Alteration, the planning inspector stated that ‘a review of the Green Belt must be part of the implementation of this Third Alteration, in order to give scope for a rational definition of the boundaries for the PUAs and to identify sites as part of the PUA to accept the requisite amount of growth in a sustainable way.’

 

Green Belt purposes

 

Green Belts are not defined on the basis of landscape quality, although they may have areas of significant environmental value within them.  They are a policy designation, defined on the basis of up to five purposes:

 

• 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.

 

Once defined, the land within Green Belts has a positive role to play in delivering land management, conservation and recreation objectives but such objectives are not a factor in determining which land to include in Green Belts.

 

The Government remains committed to Green Belts.  In a consultation on a Green Belt Direction, issued in July 2005, it says that ‘The importance of Green Belts in maintaining open countryside around most of our largest and most heavily populated cities and urban conurbations remains undiminished’ and ‘in 2003 the Government set a target for each English region to maintain or increase the area designated as Green Belt land in local plans.’

 

The Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt was designated in 1968.  It is one of the smallest Green Belts in England. 

 

Effectiveness of the Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt

 

The area of Green Belt (Map 1) is quite limited, being confined to land separating Gloucester and Cheltenham, and Cheltenham and Bishop’s Cleeve.

 

The designation has been very effective in preventing coalescence of Gloucester and Cheltenham and in retaining open land between Cheltenham and Bishop’s Cleeve. 

 

In the Cheltenham area, where the boundaries of the town either abut the Green Belt or the Cotswolds AONB where restrictive development policies also apply, Green Belt designation has probably helped to encourage brownfield development and more efficient use of land: in 2004 over 75% of housing development in Cheltenham was on formerly developed sites and the average density was over 60 dwellings per hectare, a significant achievement.

 

In the Gloucester area, development has continued apace to the south of the city, unconstrained by Green Belt or statutory landscape designations.  This is leading to an unsustainable pattern of development with long journeys to the city centre.

 

Green Belt Review

 

A feature of Green Belts is their permanence.  PPG 2 Green Belts makes it clear that only “exceptional circumstances” would justify any changes to their boundaries.   In the case of the Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt, proposals for change are anticipated on the justification of securing more sustainable patterns of development.  Without releasing some Green Belt land, it is argued that there is a danger that development will take place in less sustainable locations leading to more longer distance commuting and damage to attractive areas of countryside.  Development would also continue unrestrained south of Gloucester.

 

CPRE Gloucestershire Branch accepts that a review of the Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt is inevitable.  Such a review should be undertaken subject to strict criteria and should consider the inclusion of additional Green Belt land.

This paper proposes criteria for any formal Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt review, with the aim of achieving an outcome which does most to achieve both a more sustainable pattern of development and safeguard and enhance Gloucestershire’s countryside.   

 

Proposed criteria

 

Criteria for the conduct and implementation of any review should be agreed in advance.   CPRE proposes the following:

 

i.          a set of principles to guide any review of the Green Belt boundaries;

ii.         a set of policies to ensure that Green Belt land makes a positive contribution to the countryside and directly benefits residents in Gloucester and Cheltenham;

iii.        a process which ensures that all stakeholders work together to achieve the best possible outcome for the county as a whole.

 

Proposed set of principles to guide any review of the Green Belt boundaries

 

1.         Exceptional circumstances must be demonstrated in any proposals to remove land from the Green Belt.

 

2.         No Green Belt land should be released until all brownfield land that can be developed has been utilised.

 

3.         The central core of the Green Belt must be fully safeguarded, preventing any threat of coalescence of Cheltenham and Gloucester.

 

4.         Any losses of current Green Belt land must be kept to the absolute minimum and be fully justified on sustainable development principles.

 

5.         No part of the Green Belt situated on the flood plain should be lost, or land in proximity to the flood plain where development would exacerbate flooding.

 

6.         Additional land should be added to the Green Belt:

 

·        to protect Robinswood Hill and the land between Robinswood Hill and the Cotswolds scarp currently designated as Special Landscape Area in the Structure Plan;

·        to protect other important views from the Cotswolds AONB escarpment;

·        to safeguard the historic setting of central Gloucester;

·        to prevent further sprawl of Gloucester to the south of Hardwick and to the west of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal;

·        to protect land to the north of Bishop’s Cleeve.

 

7.         Decisions should be informed by landscape character assessment, and by information on local areas of environmental, historic or cultural importance.

 

The location of the proposed additional land is indicated diagrammatically on Map 2.

 

Proposed policies to ensure that Green Belt land makes a positive contribution to the countryside

 

Local development documents and other plans should include policies to encourage the positive management of land within the Gloucester/Cheltenham Green Belt in order to secure a range of public benefits for the countryside which also directly benefit residents in Gloucester and Cheltenham.

 

The policies should include policies for:

 

1.         landscape enhancement;

 

2.         the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity, including new habitat creation;

 

3.         the development of improved informal recreation opportunities and walking routes;

 

4.         the targeting of Environmental Stewardship promotion to help achieve 1, 2 and 3;

           

5.         the creation of extensive areas of new woodland, where appropriate to the landscape;

 

6.         the long term restoration of land which has been used for the working of minerals or for waste disposal;

           

7.         the support of small producers and the production and marketing of local products, especially local foods.

 

 

Proposed process

 

Any review should be done as a single, comprehensive exercise, led by the local

authorities working jointly and involving all interested stakeholders through consultation.  It should not be left until separate Local Development

Documents are produced for each District Council area.

 

 

 

November 2005

 

MAP 1:  EXISTING GREEN BELT

 

 

 

MAP 2: PROPOSED ADDITIONS TO THE GREEN BELT

 

Base maps by Gloucestershire County Council