The Mayor of London should work with other bodies to enhance the Metropolitan Green Belt around London, promoting its multifunctional uses and benefits and improving access to it.
The London Assembly has today agreed a motion calling on the Mayor to lobby the Government to update national planning policy to reflect the role of Green Belts in adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change and improving our resilience.
Nicky Gavron AM, who proposed the motion said:
“London’s Green Belt has been a great policy success story of the twentieth century and has been consistently backed by London’s regional government – of all political hues.
“With his new London Plan, the current Mayor has continued this trend of strong protection for Green Belt land. But with the Climate Emergency we face, the Green Belt is more important than ever, and we are calling on the Mayor to work with his teams across City Hall, with local councils and other stakeholders to realise the benefits of increased tree cover, wildlife habitats, biodiversity and local food production, as well as making it more accessible for Londoners to enjoy.
“We are also calling upon the Mayor to raise the case with Government to ensure that national planning policy reflects this vital role our Green Belt has in adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change and ecological decline.”
The full text of the motion is:
“The London Assembly recognises the role played by our visionary forebears in the London County Council in the 1930s in creating the Metropolitan Green Belt around London, further established in the Greater London Plan of the 1940s, and the success of this policy in preventing urban sprawl and promoting sustainable regeneration of London. The Assembly notes that Green Belt protection has been an important continued policy in London, supported by the London Planning Advisory Committee through the 1990s, and then in successive Mayors’ London Plans, from 2004 to 2011 to the present day. The Assembly welcomes this Mayor’s firm statements on protecting London’s Green Belt and the policies in his new London Plan, but calls on him to work with his different departments in City Hall, in the functional bodies, with local authorities, landowners and stakeholders, not only to protect but to enhance the Green Belt. This means promoting its multifunctional uses and benefits and improving access to it, so that it can be enjoyed by a greater number of Londoners for years to come and so that it helps the city tackle the Climate Emergency and ecological decline we face.
The Assembly also calls on the Mayor to lobby Government to update national planning policy to reflect the role Green Belts have in adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change and improving urban and ecological resilience.”
Notes to editors
- Watch the full webcast
- The motion was agreed unanimously.
- Nicky Gavron AM, who proposed the motion, is available for interviews.
- As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.
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