Scottish Green Belts Alliance

Press release issued 30th July 2005

The Scottish Executive will shortly be releasing a new Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) on Green Belts.

The Scottish Green Belts Alliance has prepared a report "The Future of Green Belts in Scotland". A copy is enclosed.

An earlier version of our report was submitted to the Scottish Executive while it was preparing the new SPP and we hope that its contents will be reflected in the SPP.

Central points of our report are :

• The long term importance, effectiveness and popularity of green belts
• Multiple purposes for green belts, including maintaining the identity of towns and providing a setting for them, preventing coalescence, providing access to the countryside for most people, checking urban sprawl, encouraging use of derelict or 'brownfield' in-town sites, encouraging efficient use of land, improving the quality of town fringe countryside, safeguarding natural and built heritage for future generations and other purposes.
• Assessment of pressures to erode green belts and three fundamental tensions.
• Ten models of green belt.
• Value of green belts to small and medium sized towns as well as cities.
• Need for stronger central government policies to encourage or require authorities to create new green belts and why present guidelines are inadequate
• Reasons why 'green wedges' and 'rural buffers' are not a substitute for green belts.
• Why green belts are sustainable.
• Why commercial interests are increasingly gaining power in the planning system sometimes to the detriment of the environment, local community influence and the heritage we pass to future generations.
• The need for a clear definition of the term 'green belt' including presumption against development.
• The need for a rigorous review procedure based on long term strategy, with final reference to the Scottish Executive, if consideration is given to development in a green belt.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Green Belts Alliance stated :

Green belts have had a long and successful history. They are popular. They have proved effective but they need strengthening through government action to prevent further erosion.

The need for them – and for more of them – is especially relevant today as power in planning shifts increasingly to commercial interests. Government must act as a civic conscience by strengthening green belts and the many vital purposes they serve for the environment, for the enhancement of the lives of most people and for future generations.

Green belts are the lungs of towns and cities. They provide access to the countryside, settings for settlements and protection for scenery and wildlife close to where people live.

Green belts offer a crucial tool in redressing the balance between necessary commercial growth and necessary quality of life.

The government's new green belt policy will be a test of whether it really cares about Scotland's heritage and the quality of life here.

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