The West Midlands Green Belt is a statutory

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space within the West Midlands region of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is contained within the counties of the West Midlands,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, Staffordshire,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

. Essentially, the function of the green belt is to more rigorously manage development around the cities, towns and villages in the large West Midlands conurbations centred around

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

and

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

, discouraging convergence. It is managed by local planning authorities on guidance from central government.

Geography

Land area taken up by the green belt is , 1.7% of the total land area of England (2019). Tracts of green belt lie within the West Midlands county itself, much of it by the

Meriden Gap The Meriden Gap is a mostly rural area located in the West Midlands between Solihull and Coventry. It serves as a part of the wider West Midlands Green Belt, and separates the latter from the large West Midlands conurbation, which includes Birming ...

in Solihull borough; however, the vast coverage of the green belt completely envelops the county. The green belt stretches from Stafford and

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

through to Stratford-upon-Avon,

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

, and Rugby. There is a small isolated portion of green belt separating Droitwich Spa and Worcester. The Stoke-on-Trent and Burton upon Trent/Swadlincote green belts lie around to the north. Due to the West Midlands green belt extending across several counties, responsibility and co-ordination lies with the many local district councils whose land covers the green belt, as these are the local planning government bodies.

References

{{reflist

External links

Interactive map of green belt land
Green belts in the United Kingdom Environment of the West Midlands (county) West Midlands (region)