Green Belt serves an important function in preventing urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open and the maintenance of the Green Belt is vital to improving quality of life and creating sustainable communities.In Bury, around 60% of the Borough is designated as Green Belt and the Council aims to maintain the quality and openness of the Green Belt.
This is done through the use of planning policies, which control the type and amount of new development in the Borough’s Green Belt. These policies are contained locally in the Bury Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and nationally in Government planning guidance (principally Planning Policy Guidance Note 2 (PPG2) – Green Belts). These policies set out important design criteria aimed at controlling and limiting developments that would not maintain the quality of the Borough’s Green Belt.
This guidance note has been drawn up to help deliver this aim and provide further assistance to potential developers on what is or is not acceptable in the Green Belt. In particular this note:
- provides greater clarity in terms of acceptable forms of new buildings and associated development in the Green Belt;
- provides general design related advice on the construction of new buildings in the Green Belt; and
- provides advice on how the environmental quality, amenity, wildlife interest and character of the Green Belt is maintained and where possible, improved.
This guidance note should be read in conjunction with other planningpolicies and guidance notes to ensure that a development proposal isconsidered against all relevant development plan policies and materialconsiderations.
