North Mymms District Green Belt Society

What are Green belts, and who are we?

 

Updated   21 May 2007    

 

Green Belt boundaries - various people have asked us for detailed maps of Green Belt boundaries and other such local information. Your best source of information is your local library where you should be able to see a copy of the local Council's District Plan and maps showing the GB boundaries. The document will also contain the Council's policies on the Green Belt. For government policy go to www.planning.odpm.gov.uk/ppg/ppg2 for Policy Planning Guidance Note 2 - Green Belts.

What is a Green Belt?

First proposed in 1935, Green Belt policies and the creation of Green Belts away from London effectively came in 1955 when the government issued a circular inviting local authorities to create Green Belts. They now cover about 1.5M hectares in 14 Green Belts. They prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open; the most important attribute being their openness. They shape patterns of urban development and help ensure that development occurs in locations allocated in local authority development plans. They help protect the countryside, be it agricultural, forestry, or other use. they can assist in moving towards more sustainable patterns of urban development. The five purposes are:

- checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas

- preventing neighbouring towns from merging into one another

- assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment

- preserving the setting and special character of historic towns, and

- assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.

Historical background information is in 'The Green Belt Saga' (copyright P Hamson, chairman of Radlett Green Belt Society) written in 1969. Since then the main legal changes have been the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 and the issue by the Department of the Environment of PPG2 - Planning Policy Guidance - Green Belts, revised in 1995

Location of Green Belts, based on Structure Plans and Local Plans , Sept 1993

Total = 1,555,700 hectares, divided as below. Map of English Green Belts at foot of this page.

Avon

..70,600

Oxford

..34,800

Burton-Swanlincote

......700

South & West Yorkshire

225,900

Cambridge

..26,100

Stoke on Trent

..36,500

Gloucester & Cheltenham

...8,100

SW Hampshire & SE Dorset

..85,400

Greater Manchester,Merseyside, Cheshire, & Lancs

241,700

Tyne & Wear

..46,500

London

485,600

West Midlands

209,300

Nottingham & Derby

..60,800

York

..23,700

North Mymms District Green Belt Society

North Mymms is a parish in Hertfordshire, just north of London. Potters Bar, and the M25 South Mymms Motorway Service Station. We are served by 4 motorways - the M1, M11, M25 and A1(M), and a frequent train service to London - King's Cross and Moorgate. The parish consists of Bell Bar, Brookmans Park, Little Heath, North Mymms, Welham Green, and parts of Bullens Green.

The North Mymms Ratepayers Association had a Green Belt Preservation Committee which became this Society in June 1976. Our objectives are preservation of the Green Belt and other amenities in North Mymms. We have about 1,200 paid-up members and we welcome new members - our strength is our membership. Annual subscription £1 each, or £20 for life. Our committee meetings are open to the public.

Bob Wilson, a local resident, was been our President from 1982 until 2006.  In October 2006 Gary Mabbutt MBE agreed to become our President.  Both former footballers were defenders for their clubs (Arsenal and Spurs resp.) and countries (Scotland and England resp.)

We meet monthly to consider all planning applications received by Welwyn Hatfield District Council (WHDC) relating to North Mymms. When necessary we object to, or comment on them to WHDC. We are consulted on revisions to the Herts County Structure Plan and WHDC District Plan. We alert WHDC to any other Green Belt issues which should have their attention.

Our calendar looks like this:

February - we distribute a Newsletter to all 3,500 households in the parish.

March - Annual General Meeting in the United Reformed Church, Brookmans Park, after which an outside speaker talks on a topic of local interest. Over 100 members usually attend.

June - we have a stall at the Brookmans Park Village Day.

September - Michaelmas Lunch in the North Mymms Memorial Hall, attended by about 100 members (ticket holders only - tickets available from Committee members in August and September).

In the early days we had to make special collections to pay for professional help in opposing, successfully, some large-scale planning applications from developers. We are continually building up reserves to help pay for professional help in preserving the Green Belt. We are the only organisation in the area with such resources.

Particularly in the 1970's and 80's we held public meetings about major planning applications and related issues. In 1996, nearly 600 replies to our leaflet helped in getting removed the driveway through Folly Arch, Hawkshead Road, Little Heath, the glass in the roof , and an unauthorised extension of the newly built Folly Lodge. Since 1999 we have campaigned for repairs to the Arch, which developed huge cracks in late 1998.

We have links with North Mymms Parish Council, the London Green Belt Council, the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE), and the award-winning Brookmans Park web site - www.brookmans.com.

Green Belt on American TV

Through this web site, an America public TV producer contacted us in July 1999 for assistance in making a documentary about land use, to be called 'Save Our Land'. He is at Lancaster PA, not too far from New York. The programme showed how greenbelts works, and featured Brookmans Park, Hadley Wood, Barnet, Letchworth, Welwyn, and re-generation of land in London. They are photogenic residential areas at edge of London cheek by jowl with lovely rolling fields. He advises that American cities don't end. They segue into miles of suburban sprawl. The programme contended that, in contrast to America, English cities like London actually stop where the country begins, thanks to the Green Belt laws and people like us who ensure that the laws are obeyed.

The film unit came to London on 19 July 1999 for a week, filming around Brookmans Park station, Hawkshead Lane and other local spots.

Korean visitors

North Mymms District Green Belt Soc hosted a party of 7 Koreans on Monday 7th May 2007.  Through our website we were contacted by Mrs. Way Lee, a senior researcher at the the Department of Urban and Land use Planning in Gyonggi Research Institute(GRI).  GRI was founded in 1995 by the government of Gyonggi Province that surrounds Seoul, the capital city in South Korea. GRI’s main function is to establish policies for competitiveness of the Province and for the welfare of its people through professional and systematic research on various fields such as landuse planning, transport, governance, and environment etc.

 The Korean capital has similarities to London in that it is a magnet for people.  About 20 million live in the Greater Seoul area, which is 45% of the whole population of South Korea.  The green belts around the capital and 5 or 6 other large towns are under similar pressures as the 14 Green Belts in England. 

Way Lee is working on a project to improve the green belt in Gyonggi Province. She is interested in the management of green belts and the development in green belts in other countries. She and some colleagues are visiting London and Paris to see their green belts.  We showed them examples of what they are looking for being:

·                     Salisbury Village, Hatfield which was in the Green Belt and is now housing including affordable housing, plus the Hatfield Business Park,

·                     Former workshops at Potterells, off Station Road, between Brookmans Park and Welham Green which is now housing,

·                     Former farm buildings at Home Farm, North Mymms Park which is now housing

·                     Angerland Common, South Way, Hatfield.  It was just football pitches and is now being developed as a Park and Ride and also a stadium for Hatfield Town Football Club, plus other foorball pitches and a cricket ground.  This is an example of transport and leisure facilities in the Green Belt, and   

·                     Parkfield Park off High Street, Potters Bar where the Watling Chase Community Forest has been carrying out improvement work since 2002.

 The party were entertained  for lunch by our chairman, Mrs Claire Taylor and her husband Jeremy, at their home in North Mymms Park which is also in the Green Belt.  After their London visit they will be moving on to Paris to see their green belt.

 

Map of the Metropolitan Green Belt – click here

Map of England showing Green Belts –click here

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