Green Belt land around our towns in southern Bedfordshire for many years has done a good job of preventing unrestricted sprawl, with towns and villages keeping separate identities and protecting our valuable countryside. Despite being protected in national planning guidance, Green Belt land is under immense pressure from unsustainable levels of housing development in Bedfordshire.

Central Bedfordshire Council is ploughing ahead with plans to develop about five square miles of Bedfordshire’s Green Belt, including 13,000 homes, a rail freight interchange and employments zones. This is despite being protected by national planning guidance and that the draft Council’s Development Strategy – which set out the justification for the release of Green Belt – was withdrawn after it failed to get approval by a government Planning Inspector.

Plans for over 6000 homes north of Houghton Regis, 2500 homes east of Leighton Buzzard and 325 homes in Chaul End have been approved in Green Belt, with plans for 4000 more north of Luton. Over the next 15 years we expect to see:
• Green Belt land lost to thousands of new homes in Bedfordshire
• Huge pressure on our transport systems and services
• Development impacting the Chilterns Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

And there could be more to come as Luton and London Borough Councils push for more development outside their current boundaries.

Green Belt land is one of our most valuable planning tools and has been protecting designated land for 60 years. It was set up to control urban sprawl from many of our main towns and cities, and to provide access to the countryside. It also encourages the use of previously developed land and that can help regenerate and keep housing close to services and transport links.

We are concerned that this steady erosion of protected land ultimately reduced the value and status of our Green Belt and other protected land such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
CPRE research shows that there is capacity for at least one million homes on suitable brownfield land - previously developed sites - in England’s towns and cities, many of which could be built in the south east.

Building new homes on these brownfield sites rather than open countryside can regenerate towns and cities, keeping housing close to services and transport links – we’d like to see London and and Bedfordshire's towns making better use of these sites.