How the Green Belt has supported and protected much of Bromley’s rich natural and building heritage

One of our members, Peter Martin who is Vice Chair of Bromley Civic Society explained how the Green Belt has supported and protected much of Bromley’s rich natural and building heritage to date. This green girdle around London has made Bromley one of the greenest boroughs with parks, open spaces, gardens and forest but it now faces massive population growth and housing and other development pressure as part of Greater London planning and development. 

Ebeneezer Howard was the Green Belt Godfather. With other planners and architects he saw a need at the beginning of the 20th century to create the garden cities of tomorrow as the Industrial Revolution, railway development and urbanisation intensified. They aimed to stop the city growing and spreading out further. They were influenced by health considerations such as how disease can spread rapidly between close dwellings, new
transport improvements, and a knowledge of and the need for us to enjoy nature.

A major milestone was London County Council’s establishment of the Green Belt in 1938 (Bromley celebrated 50 years of the Belt in 1988 with a giant cake in the High St!). A Greater London Plan followed in 1946 and then the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 enshrined the Green Belt. Examples of garden cities are Harrow, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, all north of London. There is talk now of Thamesmead in South London being given the same status.

Peter showed us aerial photographs of Coney Hall from the 1930s with fields around some housing and few roads. There had been a plan to develop the area to Biggin Hill. This has not happened because of the Green Belt but what we are now seeing are a series of changes and challenges to the existing planning frameworks and land usage guidance over several years from Local Authorities, the Mayor of London, developers etc. This allows previously green belt land to be used for other purposes e.g. Bishop Justus School, housing on the former Hewitt's Farm, the new proposals for Hayes Farm and Jubilee Country Park, housing being built on previous industrial land and intense housing builds around the fringes of Bromley High Street. Much of this development may be granted if plans can show substantial affordable housing, necessary infrastructure and an element of green access. 

There are no easy answers to any of this development apart from challenging applications. There were a number of questions from our very engaged audience and concern that more was not being done to utilise all the housing stock of the borough as well as incentives to downsize, creation of new units for later living as other countries have done, etc. 

Thank you Peter for providing this important update for us in Bromley.

Contributed by Angela Dowling