Greenbelt

Epping Forest District comprises towns and villages set in attractive countryside on the edge of the metropolitan area. Given its proximity to London and the motorway network, the whole District is subject to intense pressure for development. The Council, and its predecessors, have, for the most part, been able to successfully resist this pressure to develop within the countryside. Hence, both the extent and the character and appearance of the countryside have remained relatively unscathed by development. The reason that the Council has been able to defend this area so successfully is because it forms a part of the Metropolitan Green Belt.

The Metropolitan Green Belt has been a central feature of planning policy in the Home Counties since it was first formally approved in 1957. The concept of a Green Belt around London originated before the Second World War in response to the need to control the outward spread of London. The first Green Belt was defined by the London County Council in the Greater London Plan of 1944. Soon after, the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 led to the designation of a Green Belt by the councils around London. It has proved the most popular and successful regional planning policy of post-war Britain.

The Green Belt soon proved to be very effective in limiting the extent of development. So much so that, in 1955, the Government published a Circular (No 42/55) setting out the purposes of the Green Belt and encouraging other cities to follow London's example and consider establishing a Green Belt. This Circular suggested that local authorities prepare policies to ensure that new development:

(a) was only permitted where it would lead to a rounding off of, or infilling within, a settlement in the Green Belt, or

(b) was for the purposes of agriculture, recreation, cemeteries, institutions standing in large grounds or other uses appropriate to a rural area.

The basic objectives of Green Belt policy have remained unchanged since that time.

The current Government stance on Green Belts is set out primarily in PPG2. This points out that the Government attaches great importance to Green Belts, the purposes of which are:-

• to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas;
• to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment;
• to prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another;
• 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.

The PPG states that the use of land in Green Belts has a positive role to play in:-

• providing opportunities for access to the open countryside for the urban population;
• providing opportunities for outdoor sport and outdoor recreation near urban areas;
• retaining attractive landscapes, and enhancing landscapes near to where people live;
• improving damaged and derelict land around towns;
• securing nature conservation interests; and
• retaining land in agricultural, forestry and related uses.

Epping Forest District Council’s Local Plan policy is available to download in PDF Format , and the Local Plan Proposal Maps show the extent of the Green Belt.