The origins of the modern greenbelt classification
The concept of greenbelt had its roots in an idea expressed by Ebenezer Howard through his vision of Garden Cities (CPRE and Natural England 2010). Yet it was not until 1955 that these greenbelts formally came into being with Circular 42/55 (Housing and Local Government 1955). This document formally defined three specific roles for greenbelts (Gilg 1996):
- to restrict the sprawl of large built-up areas
- to prevent the merging of adjacent towns
- to preserve the setting of a town
In the 1980s pressure to relax greenbelt legislation led to a review which rather than downgrading greenbelt policy, instead led to two further roles of greenbelt policy being explicitly outlined (Circular 14/84):
- to safeguard the surrounding countryside from further encroachment
- to assist in urban regeneration
By the 1950s planners across the UK were coming round to the need and indeed virtues of greenbelt policy.
Desmond Heap, in his 1955 presidential address to the (then) Town Planning Institute, went so far as to declare that the preservation of greenbelts was ‘the very raison d'être of town and country planning.”
(Cullingworth and Nadin 2006: 233)
Following an initial flurry of activity in the 1940s and 1950s, according to Rydin (2003) a pamphlet issued by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1962 helped local authorities still further. It was specifically on designating green belts and ‘Postwar Planning: Consensus and Crisis 29’ provided further support and guidance on greenbelt designation, As a result still more towns and cities took up the offer to designate greenbelts around urban areas.
As a policy tool the simple spatial classification of greenbelt in which there was a strong presumption against development (Woods 2007) and yet an element of flexibility, became very popular with planners and indeed the general public (Cullingworth and Nadin 2006).
'A new housing development encroaching on farmland' / Shutterstock