Love a Happy Ending Lifestyle Magazine August 2013 | Page 61

Town and Country planning Act of 1947 that allowed green belt proposals in regional development
plans; clearly defined green belts, protected from development, were further encouraged around
towns and cities from 1955. Little has changed since, generally thought to be a good thing. However,
the nation’s people desperately need more housing; so how can we square this with a potential
sprawl of bricks and mortar swallowing up our green spaces?
My home town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire was recently in the news, with controversial housing
developments planned in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and on farmland that has remained
as such for the past 500 years. The Campaign to Protect Rural England is on the case, analysing
operations that may result.
Again, what can we do? Check out your area for planned development … we must have new houses,
but see what scale the development is and whether the infrastructure of local roads and amenities is
going to cope.

Lastly, a subject very close to my heart: the great, the quintessential, English village green! A village
green is the hub of many an English village; not just aesthetically, but as the pulsing heart of activities
that help bring a community together, whether sport, especially cricket; children’s play; village fetes;
travelling fairs and grazing of livestock. These days it can also be a vital, surviving ‘lung’ for
developed surroundings, much like a park in London; quite simply, somewhere to sit and
contemplate, meet friends, feed the ducks or walk the dog.
Surely they are sacrosanct? Well, apparently not.
The Open Spaces Society has recently expressed its disapproval and outrage at the government’s
plans for town and village greens in the new Growth and Infrastructure Bill. The Commons Act 2006