planning

London Green Belt Council – Green is now Grey

Please read this paper detailing grey belt sites: Green belt is now grey belt.

Foreword

The London Metropolitan Green Belt (LMGB) as a planning policy has been hugely successful in containing the capital and preventing urban sprawl. In 1940 London and Los Angeles were of a similar area and if London had been allowed to sprawl to the extent that Los Angeles has grown, it would stretch from Brighton to Cambridge.

The LMGB has many economic, social and environmental benefits, apart from its role to restrict urban sprawl and encourage urban regeneration. It protects the capital from flooding and provides opportunities for carbon sequestration, nature regeneration and biodiversity. It provides important physical and mental health and welfare benefits for the city’s inhabitants, and opportunities for recreation and sport as well as food security and rural activities.

The introduction of grey belt has already resulted in the loss of open countryside, often of high quality, as can be seen in the photographs in this paper. It is leading to speculative and piecemeal development with ten out of the twelve planning appeals in 2025 being allowed for proposed development in the London Green Belt where the sites were identified as grey belt.

These sites are not previously developed land, such as redundant petrol stations or car parks, as originally intended. The present definition of grey belt enables the revoking of protection of Green Belt, as is recognised by developers and their legal representatives.

The Government’s grey belt policy is leading to the destruction of the Green Belt whose benefits will not be enjoyed in future. If this policy is not reversed, future generations will live to regret it.

Richard Knox-Johnston
Chair
The London Green Belt Council 		Peter Waine OBE
Chair
CPRE Hertfordshire

Useful links

Contact your MP

Contact the Councillor for where you live

By R.D.R.A., ago

Second open letter responding to Gagan’s position from Joint Residents’ Association

Dear Gagan,

Thank you for your letter of 4th March. We note, however, that you have not addressed the central questions put to you in our open letter of 2nd March: why did you undermine the draft Plan by criticising the evidence that supports it and why did you publicly support the Housing Minister’s decision to block public consultation on the draft Local Plan? It should be noted that the Housing Minister did not say TRDC’s Local Plan evidence is inadequate; he simply said he wanted to read it, to see if it justifies the draft plan.

More concerning still is what happened after you received our letter. You had the opportunity to raise Three Rivers at Prime Ministers Question Time and rather than use it to robustly defend our Green Belt, to demand that the Minister reverse his intervention and to back the evidence supporting the Plan, you seemed to be more interested in scoring a party-political point You state that you have “consistently defended our Green Belt.” We would respectfully point out that the single most effective defence of the Green Belt is a sound, adopted Local Plan and you have just backed the Minister’s decision to prevent one from reaching public consultation. Without a plan proceeding to examination and adoption, the district remains exposed to exactly the speculative development you say you oppose. Your position is contradictory: how you can you claim to defend the Green Belt while supporting the action that leaves it most vulnerable.

You claim the plan “lacked the evidence required to be deemed sound.” As we set out in our original letter, this does not withstand scrutiny. Consider the Stage 4 Green Belt Review recently undertaken at considerable cost which analyses the Green Belt under the new rules. This was prepared by one of the most highly regarded major consultancies, with recognised experience in this area. This review clearly identifies that development in several areas of the District’s Green Belt would fundamentally undermine the purposes of the wider Green Belt and therefore must be protected from development.

Every week without a Local Plan increases the risk to our Green Belt. Since your first question in the House on 23rd February, a new application to build 333 homes on Catlips Farm in Chorleywood has been published and a new development on the Horsefield in Bedmond has been announced. Speculative applications are flooding in across the district precisely because there is no adopted plan in place. Your constituents are paying the price for this delay, and your support for the Minister’s intervention is making it worse.

We are not naïve. With local elections approaching in May, we understand that the Local Plan risks being used as a political football by parties of all colours. However, when it comes to this issue, we would urge everyone to put party interests aside and all get to together behind it. The future of our Green Belt and the communities we live in is too important to be reduced to electioneering. We would urge you and all elected representatives to treat this issue with the seriousness and honesty it demands.

We repeat our call: please withdraw your support for the Minister’s action and publicly back the draft plan proceeding to consultation and examination without further delay. That is how you defend the Green Belt, not by blocking the very process designed to protect it.

The Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association represents thousands of residents across every part of the district. Since your first intervention in the Houses of Parliament on this we have asked repeatedly to meet with you about this vital issue, and we again offer to meet with you at your earliest convenience to brief you fully on the plan and on why Residents’ Associations across Three Rivers are united in calling for it to proceed. We trust you will not decline.

Yours sincerely,

Barry Grant
Chair – Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association

Read more

First open letter to Gagan Mohindra MP from Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association (JRA)

Full letter from Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook here: IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended

Response to Housing Minister letter from Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal

By R.D.R.A., ago

Draft response to the Government’s consultation on National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

Message from Colne Valley Regional Park.

Click to view draft response to each policy.

Our key points are:

  • The Colne Valley Regional Park is a special landscape, nature and community resource which deserves an overall protected designation, but does not currently have one. Although it is within the Metropolitan Green Belt, this still makes it vulnerable to piecemeal encroachment without adequate compensation. In the absence of this, the NPPF should say more to protect the Park in other ways.
  • The NPPF should say more about the cumulative impact of speculative (as opposed to planned) development, both authorised and unauthorised.
  • Cross-boundary cooperation should be strengthened at all levels of plan-making, not only for housing and economic growth, but also for environmental protection at a landscape scale.
By R.D.R.A., ago

Planning Reform Consultation, deadline 10th March

The government has published updated national design guidance to improve the quality of new housing and neighbourhoods in England, supporting wider planning reforms and the delivery of 1.5 million homes this Parliament. The guidance sets clear expectations for well-designed, walkable and climate-resilient neighbourhoods, with homes close to local services, adaptable layouts, strong local character, high-quality public spaces and better integration of nature. It is intended to speed up planning decisions by giving councils and developers a shared design framework, with further model design codes to follow, and is open for consultation until 10 March 2026.

Read in-depth information before completing consultation: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-design-guidance-to-raise-the-bar-for-new-build-developments

Consultation: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/national-planning-policy-framework-proposed-reforms-and-other-changes-to-the-planning-system

By R.D.R.A., ago
London Green Belt Council.

Grey Belt Threats – Request for Photos. Deadline 16th January.

Message from London Green Belt Council.

An existential threat to the very concept of the Metropolitan Green Belt appears to be emerging as land owners, developers and local authorities alike have this year begun to use the NPPF December 2024 ‘grey belt’ definition to reclassify Green Belt sites for development. Far from the idea presented by government ministers of ‘grey belt’ as small sites, of low-quality and previously developed, many are extensive, agricultural land and/or highly biodiverse.

Can you help?

The London Green Belt Council is seeking photographs (using a mobile is fine) plus brief details of land now redesignated by LAs or argued by developers to be ‘grey belt’.

  • LOCATION (town/area postcode if known)
  • GREY BELT PROPOSAL REFERENCE (planning application/Local Plan)

And if details available:

  • Number of houses, energy infrastructure, solar farms etc, whether mixed development and size of the site you have photographed.
  • Any special features of the site, natural features, footpaths.

If you do not know all the details, the Location and Reference will suffice.

We hope to create a record of how the new NPPF affects our valuable countryside and present it to government and the media in February 2026.

Please send details plus photos as a separate attachment (jpg or similar) by email to info@londongreenbeltcouncil.org.uk by Friday 16 January 2026.

Please keep it simple. See examples on page 2 in document below:
https://rickmansworthresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/PHOTOS-OF-GREY-BELT-LGBC.pdf

See this previous article which signposts to sites in Rickmansworth:

https://rickmansworthresidents.org/2024/05/planning-and-local-plan/

By R.D.R.A., ago

Grey belt photos – question

Message received 28th November – via email.

I am willing to take photos.  However, where can we find details of land being designated ‘grey belt?

[ Regarding post: Grey Belt Threats – Request for Photos ]

RDRA response:

Very good question. We’ll have to go through all of the green belt sites in the local plan and see which ones are/can be reclassified as grey belt.  Also look into the developers proposed sites to see if they have been reclassified. At the moment it seems to be a tall order.

But many thanks for your offer of help. Much appreciated.

See this previous article which signposts to sites in Rickmansworth:

https://rickmansworthresidents.org/2024/05/planning-and-local-plan/

By R.D.R.A., ago

Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation: Newly Submitted Sites and New Policies (Part 5) – Deadline 31st August

This message from Three Rivers District Council is what we’ve all been waiting for! It’s important that our members contribute to this consultation on any sites or development in our area.

Three Rivers District Council is preparing a new Local Plan that will guide and manage future development in the district up to 2041. Following on from the previous Regulation 18 consultations which took place in 2021 and 2023, we are now carrying out a supplementary consultation on newly submitted sites and new policies. This Regulation 18 Newly Submitted Sites and New Policies (Part 5) Consultation contains new sites that were submitted for the Council’s consideration following a call for sites exercise earlier in 2025. Individual site assessments for these potential site allocations for housing have been undertaken as part of the Strategic Housing & Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) which is used to identify sites and broad locations with potential for development. This consultation also includes policies which have not yet been consulted on.

It is important to note these sites are in addition to those consulted on in 2021 and 2023. We are asking for your views on these potential new sites so we can consider them together with the previously submitted responses to previous Regulation 18 consultations. This will help us in drawing up a final proposal. To view and respond online to this consultation please visit the Council’s Have Your Say consultation platform, link below:

Link to Consultation Survey (scroll down to ‘Take Survey’ button):
https://haveyoursay.threerivers.gov.uk/local-plan-newly-submitted-sites-policies-consultation

Hard copies of the consultation document and supporting documents can also be viewed in the Council’s offices in Rickmansworth and at the public libraries located in the district. Written responses can be submitted by post to: Planning Policy, Three Rivers District Council, Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth, Herts, WD3 1RL

The consultation period starts on Wednesday 16th July 2025 and ends at 11:59pm on Sunday 31st August 2025.

Further reading

The Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation Documents, accompanying Sustainability Appraisal Working Notes and the evidence base studies which have been completed so far can be viewed on the Council’s website at: https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-policy/new-local-plan

By R.D.R.A., ago

Joint Residents’ Association comments on reform of planning committees

The Joint Residents’ Association (JRA) has responded to the technical consultation about the reform of planning committees. Click here to read the JRAs response. Please contact us if you have any comments on the JRAs response.

Note, the JRA combines lots of local associations and therefore have a stronger voice together:

  • Bedmond Residents Association;
  • Can’t Replace Our Green Space;
  • Carpenters Park Residents Association;
  • Chorleywood Residents Association;
  • Chandlers Cross Residents Association;
  • Croxley Green Residents Association;
  • Eastbury Residents Association;
  • Kings Langley & District Residents Association;
  • Maple Cross & West Hyde Residents Association;
  • Moor Park Residents Association;
  • Oxhey Hall Residents Association;
  • Rickmansworth & District Residents Association;
  • Hunton Bridge.
By R.D.R.A., ago