A CAMPAIGNING group has issued a call to enhance the Green Belt for all.

Just a relatively modest increase in investment in our Green Belts would see significant benefit for nearly half the population, according to Dorset CPRE.

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CPRE has published a report calling on Government to commit to providing sufficient funds to deliver on its commitment, in the Levelling Up Bill, to ‘improved Green Belts around towns and cities’. The report is based on research analysing the geographical spread of agri-environment schemes and considers the financial implications of the Environmental Land Management schemes that are to be introduced. CPRE urges Government to honour its pledge to both protect and enhance Green Belt land.

Agri-environment schemes to plant trees, improve soil health, boost biodiversity and restore historic parks and buildings are not sufficiently benefiting the countryside that is most accessible to the general public, especially the 30 million people who live in urban centres, it claims. Only 19% of Green Belt land is covered by agri-environment schemes, yet 28% of land is covered by such schemes overall, indicating significant under-investment where it is most needed.

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CPRE finds that the increase in visitors to Green Belt land seen during the pandemic is being maintained, with greater recognition of the benefits to health and wellbeing provided by access to nature. But it says this valuable Green Belt land is under increasing threat of development and in need of greater protection.

The report says that, locally, a big problem is the questionable use of the undefined term ‘exceptional circumstances’ to justify removal of land from Green Belts for development. Such development is too often large executive houses that do nothing to address the lack of affordable housing for Dorset residents, and has seen 70% of the Green Belt around Wimborne removed for development. In recent years this power has also been used to remove Green Belt protection from the countryside next door to many in BCP and East Dorset, particularly in the Stour Valley.

Peter Bowyer, Chair of Dorset CPRE, said: "This report is both timely and important.

"I understand that Dorset Council are considering the case for relaxing the Green Belt designations on ground of exceptional circumstances.

"A commitment from Government to increase funding for Green Belt protection and enhancement would send a powerful message that it is serious in its aim to develop ‘brownfield first’.

"It would also demonstrate its recognition of the enormous value to health and wellbeing of the countryside around our towns and cities."

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"The introduction of Environmental Land Management schemes will replace previous agricultural and land management subsidies and will be the mechanism by which Government funds its commitment to safeguard and improve Green Belt land.

"It is vital that the funding for these schemes recognises the enormous benefits to be achieved by that investment, not least for urban dwellers.

"Dorset residents can play their part by writing to their MPs, ward councillors, parish councillors and the press drawing attention to the serious threat to the Green Belts highlighted in the CPRE report and urging them to put pressure on the Government to honour its commitments with the necessary funding."

* “The countryside next door: why we need to invest in greener, healthier Green Belts” https://www.cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/CPRE_Countryside_Next_Door.pdf