South and West Yorkshire Green Belt
The South and West Yorkshire Green Belt is a statutory green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It is contained within the counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. Essentially, the function of the belt is to more rigorously manage development around the cities, towns and villages in the large West Yorkshire Urban Area with the Sheffield urban area and surrounding towns, discouraging convergence.[1] It is managed by local planning authorities on guidance from central government.
Geography
Land area taken up by the belt is 248,241 hectares (1.9% of the total land area of England (2010)[2]. The vast coverage of the belt is within the Yorkshire counties, with extensions towards Harrogate and Knaresborough in southern North Yorkshire, and Chesterfield in north eastern Derbyshire.
The South and West Yorkshire Green Belt is contiguous with the North West Green Belt along the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire county boundary, creating a continuous band of protected area through to the English western coastline by the River Mersey and Irish Sea. The City of York Green Belt is also a few miles to the north east.
Due to the belt lying across several counties, responsibility and co-ordination lies with the many local district councils whose land covers the belt, as these are the local planning government bodies.
