John Ashby - Durham's Green Belt

At this evening meeting, attended by many spouses, partners and friends, we heard an impassioned plea from John Ashby, a member of the Durham Green Belt Group. 

John is a Town & Country Planning professional, now retired and he argued that the current County Durham Plan is flawed in relation to the projections of population growth and the need for additional housing in and around Durham City. 

The Plan would result in significant incursion into the statutory boundaries of the green belt around the city which were approved as recently as 2004 giving "statutory and permanent protection to open land around the City".  Thus, in law, "green belt boundaries should not be changed unless very exceptional circumstances exist".  John and the Green Belt group maintain that such exceptional circumstances do not exist.

  
The existing Green Belt and the potential incursions

This is an important and complex issue, affecting all of us who live in and around Durham and everyone who wishes to protect the city "with its world heritage site set in a green landscape bowl.

See the Group's website and the County Durham Plan for further information.