Green belt land could be better utilised for food production - Yorkshire Post Letters

The use of green belt land on the edge of towns and villages to aid the avoidance of flooding and increase local food production is not a new idea as many allotment sites are situated on surplus land next to former railway lines (The Yorkshire Post, August 17, 2023).

With the mass closure of railway lines, holding large expanses of land from rail goods yards or sidings, and stations in the 1960s following the Beeching report were developed into green open spaces, creating corridors linking urban open space to the countryside.

Many urban council refuse disposal tips were when filled, levelled and topsoil spread over to create recreational open spaces creating sports areas including football and rugby pitches, and provided facilities for many local football, rugby and cricket teams.

Once the land had naturally settled, the low areas were levelled with topsoil and then drained by a traditional 'herringbone' drainage system which allowed football fixtures to go ahead during the wet winter months.

Also during this period urban planners working for Development Corporations designed and constructed large residential and industrial 'new towns' in places like Milton Keynes in Bedfordshire so that families in London, and in Skelmersdale in Lancashire/Merseyside could move families from terraced housing in Liverpool and Manchester into the countryside.

These new towns had provision for large semi urban country parks with mass plantings of young trees creating large expanses, often running into hundreds of hectares of set aside open space.

In the mid 1980s, the Tory government under the leadership of Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, started the 'cruel' closure of coal mines which destroyed many pit villages and created long running conflict with families living in communities in mainly South, West and North Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire

I worked for Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council during the early 1980s as a technical assistant in the large landscape section of the parks and open spaces department.

This was led by former mining surveyor, Mr Alan Wilson, who for many year's vision developed areas of open spaces within the 80 square miles of deprivation in parts of Barnsley district in places like Cudworth, Thurnscoe and Goldthorpe.

There were similar landscape teams employed in Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield, reclaiming former areas occupied by coal mines in Hatfield and beyond.

Many of these areas linked pocket parks with playgrounds for children to play.

Some of these open spaces have now been developed into employment zones with mega warehousing for major companies supplying food to budget supermarkets and home deliveries.

I agree with Roger Mortlock, CEO of CPRE, that this and future governments need to assess and review how the green belt is utilised, for both recreation and food production.