As part of an annual review of the threats to Green Belt land across England, CPRE West Yorkshire has identified that Council’s across the county intend to sanction unprecedented levels of development on Green Belt land.

Green Belt land covers around 12.5% of England, and is mostly open land and countryside around large towns or cities. Research shows that without the Green Belt designation, much of these areas would have long since been lost to urban sprawl.

While successive Governments have declared strong support for Green Belts, their policies and decisions continue to allow Green Belt land to be built on, and the current Government is no different.

Each year CPRE report on the scale and nature of the threats to Green Belts across the country, and depressingly the latest research shows that in West Yorkshire:

• In Calderdale up to 6,800 dwellings could be built on Green Belt and similarly protected land.
• In Leeds there are plans for almost 20,000 dwellings in the countryside, much of which will be on Green Belt land.
• In Kirklees the Council want to see Green Belt land for 1,500 dwellings and 122ha of business parks.
• Wakefield Council has already approved plans for warehousing and a sports stadium on 50ha of Green Belt land.

Unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg as we are also aware that Bradford Council wants to see much of their new housing built on Green Belt land around the district.

The full CPRE briefing paper entitled Green Belt and the National Planning Policy Framework: 18 months on is available from our resources section.