Protection of the Green Belt

NE16: Protection of the Green Belt 1. Development in the Green Belt is inappropriate except where it is on previously developed land that meets the criteria below or meets one of the following exceptions: a) Buildings for agriculture and forestry. b) The provision of appropriate facilities (in connection with the existing use of land or a change of use) including buildings for outdoor sport, outdoor recreation, recreational moorings and water-based recreation activities, cemeteries and burial grounds and allotments; as long as the facilities preserve the openness of the Green Belt and do not conflict with the purposes of including land within it; c) The replacement or extension of buildings. d) Limited infilling only within the built-up villages identified on the Policies Map and in accordance with the definition in paragraph 7.4.173 below. e) Limited affordable housing for local community needs only in accordance with Policy HO9 Rural Exception Sites. f) Other forms of development specified in the NPPF provided they preserve its openness and do not conflict with the purposes of including land within the Green Belt. 2. Inappropriate development will not be supported unless there are very special circumstances. Very special circumstances will exist when the harm to the Green Belt by reason of inappropriateness, and any other harm, is clearly outweighed by other considerations. 7.263 Whilst Green Belt is not an environmental designation, it still protects areas from development, preventing sprawl and keeping areas open. As part of this plan, the Green Belt has been reviewed to identify Grey Belt and Provisional Grey Belt land (Grey Belt land is land that has previously been developed or does not strongly meet Green Belt purposes). This policy applies to all Greenbelt land regardless of its Grey Belt designation. 7.264 Whilst in many instances national policy provides sufficient detail to determine whether a proposal is appropriate development in the Green Belt, there are instances which require clarification in the interests of certainty and consistency. In addition, they are necessary to guard against a cumulative impact that residential outbuildings can have on the openness of the Green Belt. These are set out in the Policies NE17 and NE18 and include, for example, our benchmark approach to determining the degree to which a dwelling can be extended without resulting in disproportionate additions. Hence the inclusion of 3(a-c) in Policy NE18 below. Note, a Neighbourhood Plan still must accord with the strategic policies of the Local Plan. 7.265 The villages that we have identified as appropriate for limited infilling are those villages which are washed over by the Green Belt, but which are identified in the Settlement Hierarchy as sustainable locations for incremental growth. The villages are Tiers 4 and 5 in the Settlement Hierarchy. 7.266 Limited infilling must have regard to the settlement pattern and the grain and morphology of the village. It does not need to be frontage development; it can be a backland plot. ‘Backland’ normally refers to the development of land that sits behind an established building line of existing housing or other development and is often land that is used as a garden. Whereas ‘Infill’ is a small gap within an otherwise built-up street frontage. 7.267 To be limited infilling (whether in a frontage or backland), the plot must be comparable in size and shape to the average house plots in the village (excluding any that are atypically large or small). The proposed building must be similarly comparable in size and scale (again, excluding outliers). This is assessed on the size of the building proposed (not the size of each dwelling) to allow flexibility for smaller pairs of semi-detached houses as infilling in areas of larger detached housing (or vice versa). 7.268 Suitable infilling plots can be created by the subdivision of larger residential gardens (or other previously developed land) but not by the artificial sub-division of agricultural fields, or paddocks, or similar land that has not been previously developed, where this is likely to result in incrementalism. 7.269 It is important to support expansion and improvement of the rural economy within the Green Belt and for that our Rural Diversification policy covers the different aspects that can affect it.