Green belt, green fields and brown fields

A quick note on the Green Belt.

Many people think that the green fields around our towns and cities are covered by a Green Belt which prevents development.

Actually it is only the major towns and cities which have a Green Belt around them.

Coventry has a Green Belt but Rugby does not.

Much of the agricultural land to the west of Rugby for instance around Wolston, Brandon and Brinklow is protected by the Green Belt but it is Coventry's Green Belt which is doing the protection and not a Rugby Green Belt.

Land to the north, east and south of Rugby is not protected by a Green Belt.

Even although the agricultural land elsewhere in Rugby is not covered by Green Belt protection it used to be covered by Rugby's planning policies. However a loophole in the National Planning Policy Framework is allowing developers to put in applications virtually anywhere - more details on the loophole are here - http://rugby.lib.dm/a1RD3 .

Finally the University of the West of England has concluded that we have enough brownfield sites to meet Britain's housing needs for the next five years without touching any agricultural land whether on Green Belt or not - see http://rugby.lib.dm/a6Q2d .