Government 'bulldozing green belt' to meet new homes target » Environment » 24dash.com

Thousands of hectares of green belt have been lost to housing development in recent years and more is under threat, the Campaign to Protect Rural England warned today.

Despite commitments by the Government to preserve green belt land, it has been "seriously eroded", with an average of more than 1,100 hectares a year being developed between 1997 and 2003, the conservation charity said.

It said more than 45,000 homes - equivalent to a city the size of Bath - had been built on green belt since 1997.

The CPRE welcomed the move by the Government to create the New Forest National Park from existing green belt land and the refusal of damaging development proposals in the West Midlands.

But it warned that land designated to stop urban sprawl across England was under threat from developments including new homes, airport extensions, park- and-ride schemes and wind turbines.

Overall, green belt coverage has increased by more than 30,000 hectares since 1997 - if conversion of 47,300 hectares into the New Forest National Park is taken into account - and now accounts for 13% of land in England.

But the CPRE warns the policy is being weakened where it is most needed and most under pressure - at the edge of towns and cities.

The campaigners also accused Government planning inspectors of undermining protection of the green belt and suggesting it should not be treated as permanent.

While total coverage has grown in the North East, North West, South West and Yorkshire and the Humber since 2004, it has shrunk in East Anglia and the East and West Midlands, the CPRE said.

Reviews of green belt boundaries are being considered around London and in the Home Counties in a bid to accommodate new homes under regional plans, the conservation group said.

And according to the CPRE, two of the 15 short listed "eco-town" proposals include development on green belt land, despite Government promises no houses would be built on the green belt in the scheme.

As much as 80% of the eco-town planned for the former colliery town of Rossington could be on green belt land, the CPRE claimed.

Around a quarter of the proposed eco-town site in Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire, which has been heavily opposed by local residents including Tim Henman's parents, would encroach on green belt land.

But the Department for Communities and Local Government said no decisions had been made on which eco-towns would be built and they were being held to tougher environmental standards than ordinary developments.

Paul Miner, senior planning campaigner for the CPRE, said he believed ministers wanted to protect the green belt but it was being seriously eroded.

"Too much development has already been permitted and some Government inspectors appear to be interpreting green belt policy in their own way.

"This is making a mockery of the permanence which green belts are supposed to have.

"Now we are faced with a serious downturn in the housing market. There is a real danger that Government will panic and relax green belt protection in a rush for development at any price," he said.

Planning Minister Iain Wright said: "This analysis is flawed and one sided. The suggestion that the amount of green belt is falling overall is deeply misleading.

"What the CPRE fail to tell you is that since 1997 the overall amount of green belt has grown by 82,000 acres (33,000 hectares)."

But the Government came under fire from shadow local government secretary, Eric Pickles, who said Prime Minister Gordon Brown's promise he would protect the green belt was "utterly worthless".

"Government inspectors are letting rip with the concrete mixer and adding to the unsustainable urban sprawl by bulldozing the green belt.

"Labour's policies are only going to deliver sprawling housing estates, without proper infrastructure, much of it on flood plains," Mr Pickles said.