This exciting sounding read details the purpose of the Green Belt and explains how land ends up being designated as Green Belt and what safeguards are in place to stop Green Belt land being built upon.
There are a couple of things in PPG2 which are particularly relevant to our fight to try to stop the Doddinghurst GPs building a new surgery/medical centre in the Green Belt.
Firstly, one of the objectives of the Green Belt is "to retain land in agricultural, forestry and related uses". So in our case, the Green Belt exists to ensure that the field at Deal Tree Corner remains as farmland.
The document goes on to say that the construction of new buildings (such as the proposed Doddinghurst surgery) in the Green Belt is inappropriate unless it is for any of the following:
- essential facilities for outdoor sport (e.g. small changing rooms)
- cemeteries
- limited extension/alteration of existing dwellings
- limited infilling
- limited social housing
- limited infilling/redevelopment of a major existing developed site
Nowhere does the list mention a two-storey GP surgery with associated car park as being an appropriate development for Green Belt land.
That's good to see and hopefully is something that our local councillors will have in mind when the time comes for them to decide on this planning application.
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