Green Belt Vs Concrete Belt, Who Will Win?

For many years ’s great countryside has remained untouched. Open spaces that have been uncultivated have been used for recreational parks or remained preserved. This has halted what is termed urban sprawl and limited the boundaries of communities. However with the rising population and Gordon Browns aim to build three million homes by 2020. We are faced with the fact that a lot of our countryside will suffer, is there any way of preserving the country and what are the implications?

Driving around the countryside

I am an assistant surveyor with 1stassociated.co.uk. Since I have started this role, I have noticed developments and constructions practically everywhere I go. I was surprised to arrive in Milton Keynes on a survey to see large spaces of countryside being redeveloped. The surveyor spoke about how a town has been completely redeveloped and transformed. Milton Keynes is our newest town.  We joked how an old farmer pocketed from a development sale. The simple fact is that with more and more people coming into the country and developers looking to make gains there is absolutely no way they will be prevented in gaining planning permission to do as they please. Only time will tell if this will be beneficial. One thing for certain with the government behind the idea there is no way it is stopping for now.

The issue & green belt

For many years voters have prevented their countryside being destroyed however a Whitehall report recently said that they should now be built upon. There seems to be a side in the government which would allow it to protect the green belt as Gordon Brown promised a month ago. Now the Whitehall Inspectors are not agreeing.  Areas such as the South east, Oxford Surrey Berkshire and Kent shall be greeted with bulldozers and the ‘lungs of our cities and the glories of our countryside’ will have to go!  So is it really happening? A recent article said from 2000-02 1,062 acres was built over. Even the tight squeeze in London didn’t stop 36 acres being transformed. Just less than 1000 acres were also lost to construction in areas like the Midlands, North West , and South West. So if you’re driving along the motorways you can watch out! Green belt was introduced in 1938 and covers 13 percent of . It was protected until 1955. 

Nimbi opposition

‘Nimbi voters’ continue to argue in support for the heritage. It should be preserved in the country; however the government has labelled them as selfish. I recently applied for a number of universities and examined the postgraduate masters available to study. There are different disciplines that surveyors are now specialising in and one of them is for sustainable heritage. There are courses you can study in this field and this may become more important in the future but against the tactics of the government it really doesn’t look like anything can be done to counter. More houses will go up and they may criticise for being built on poor infrastructure and possibly poor planning. However the government needs to build to cover shortage for housing. One such area is London tackled with the rise of immigration and population areas are being extended out into the countryside. I recently spoke to a builder about him living in Uxbridge, Middlesex. He explained how it was countryside a long time ago and how it is now a very expensive area just outside of Heathrow.
 
In 1994 the transport secretary John Mac Gregor offended environmentalists by saying there is hardly any motorways in the U.K when responding to complaints of road building in the countryside. This has provided Gordon Brown with inspiration who believes there is a lot of countryside to be taken advantage of. With the shortage of houses house building is becoming more important.

One of the implications would be the obvious; under pressures of deadlines and time will the housing be of good quality? Currently the government has an objective of building sustainable houses low on carbon emissions and pricing them to sell at a premium.

Brownfield’s an alternative?

The other factor that so many wishing to preserve argue is why so many Brownfield sites are not taken advantage of. This is land which has previously been developed. This may encompass vacant or derelict land; infill sites; land occupied by redundant or unused buildings; and developed land within the settlement boundary where further intensification of use is considered acceptable. Existing areas of landscaped or amenity urban green space such as private and public gardens, sports and recreation grounds, woodlands etc shall not be considered as Brownfield sites for new development.

One such successful example of a Brownfield site has been the Greenwich peninsula. This houses the former millennium dome now known as the 02 building. This covers 200 acres of proposed residential and commercial development. The 02 building is a major entertainment venture. Recently Londoners attended the Prince concert in VIP and had a fantastic time!  The area surrounding the dome is now just as big as Trafalgar square with the first house to go on sale later this year.  This is part of a massive 5 million pound regeneration scheme. Chris Roberts the leader of the Greenwich council said how this was a far cry from when a few years ago he was advised not to get of the bus on this ex Brownfield.

So possibly more brown field sites can be used as a substitute for knocking away our lovely countryside’s. However there is always a downside isn’t there? Much of the land is known to be contaminated and can be of a liability. The areas are in shortage and the environmental risks can be high of using such land. The government has an aim of using Brownfield sites to build 60% of houses however whether this is being done is another matter. The environmental and health risks are severe therefore meaning they are less profitable to build on however it is possible to turn a Brownfield into an asset as we can see with the peninsula. Some developers may be put off by the sheer cost that will eat away at profits.

Once an inaccessible pocket of London

The peninsula is an example of sustainability in new building. All houses will feature green roof, green streets for bikes, and more cost effective heating systems. This will ultimately become a zero carbon area. There are also other benefits that regeneration such as this brings. Georgian houses in prime streets are selling within a week, owner occupiers are being encouraged, and the inaccessibility of the area has been countered by the jubilee line and docklands light railway. Mediterranean style evenings and a sandy beach are to come! This is a tremendous example of how developers can invest more on old developed sites and leave the countryside alone. We must make note that a lot is to come and hasn’t been completed yet. Which reflects that we are still being promised a lot without results to evaluate.

Popular myths of green belt

The problem is brown field sites tend to be in areas where no one wants to live, the Rogers report states. There is general consensus about 14% of the homes we need to accommodate rising populations can be built here. However this may be untrue as there isn’t enough of them.

No chance of maintaining the quo greenery?

So what is the conclusion? There is very little green belt left in the U.K a satellite image of the U.K will show that areas are full of light in the south east according to Evans and Hartwich who argue that a lot of the areas in the U.K are less urbanized than we think. Areas such as the south east are lower on urban than areas such as the North West! Compared to Belgium and West Germany they have commented we are again lower but than we are a smaller country too so how could we compare? The European block is the highest in use of agriculture compared to other regions at around 60% and the U.K is higher than the bloc on average at 70%. Another important point to note is that with sustainability being high on the government agenda maybe concrete isn’t so bad. More garden spaces and areas may help our areas unlike some countryside’s which can be unhygienic full of pest’s weeds and birds. I have recently seen how wellyn garden city was built on large gardens and has been one of our best new towns on the 20th century.

Why not develop in the north?

This has been one kind of to the issue of green belt and the shortage could be to use the north. This has been labeled a hot spot. Areas of Yorkshire Liverpool and Manchester have all featured interest from big developers. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had a vision of building a super city stretching from Liverpool to Manchester. Could it be possible to carry out your shopping one day from Liverpool to Yorkshire? Who knows?

If not maybe to the pennines? This would be a massive competition to London which is one of the largest cities in the world.
A boom may be leading to a rise in construction and the people always like to preserve the status quo. History has shown that people are always scared of change but evolution is an issue and we must innovate to accommodate. We need to pay attention to inequalities and overcrowding and pricing to gaps between the rich. Resentment may be faced and it is important communities pull together on this one.

Bibliography.

The Daily mail August 2007
‘Greenwich boom time’
‘What price green and pleasant England?’
‘The concrete belt’
 Green belt reviews online
 U.K land directory online
 Greenwich peninsula online
 The Times
 Build on the green belt and build now’
 
Tony Bains 1st Associated