Our campaign to save the Green Belt hits the national media!

CPRE Hertfordshire’s ‘Save our Green Belt’ campaign has hit the headlines, with an article published earlier today in The Telegraph. It highlights our national petition and features local campaigners and our own Chief Executive and Planning Manager.

The Telegraph has featured a story about how Hertfordshire residents are reeling under an onslaught of major development proposals in the Green Belt.

There has been a dramatic increase in new proposals, and previously-refused proposals coming back again as developers seek to take advantage of inconsistencies in Green Belt protections and the definition of ‘grey belt’ land within the Green Belt, brought in by the Government in December 2024.

The Government says the test of what qualifies as grey belt is very clear in the NPPF, and that the green belt can only be built on in exceptional circumstances.

But we know this is not the case. Our CPRE Hertfordshire Chief Executive Abby Coften says the way it is defined is giving developers free rein to build in the countryside.

The article goes on to highlight our national petition to help save the Green Belt by amending the definition of ‘grey belt’ in national planning policy, to reinstate a consistent approach regarding all five purposes of the Green Belt.

Read the full article in The Telegraph.

And please sign our petition here.

Sign our petition

More information about the inconsistencies in national planning policy is available on our campaign webpage.

It’s important to note that our campaign is nationally relevant across all 14 Green Belts in England, which provide green space and access to nature for a majority of the population. This includes Green Belts around Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, York, Stoke, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford and Bournemouth, as well as the London Metropolitan Green Belt which includes land in Hertfordshire and the other home counties.