West Midlands Green Belt
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The West Midlands Green Belt is a statutory green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space within the West Midlands region of England. It is contained within the counties of the West Midlands, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Essentially, the function of the belt is to more rigorously manage development around the cities, towns and villages in the large West Midlands conurbations centred around Birmingham and Coventry, discouraging convergence.[1] It is managed by local planning authorities on guidance from central government.
Geography
Land area taken up by the belt is 224,954 hectares, 0.5% of the total land area of England (2010)[2]. Tracts of belt lie within the West Midlands county itself, notably Solihull borough, however the vast coverage of the belt completely envelops the county.
The belt stretches from Stafford and Telford through to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, and Rugby. There is a small isolated portion of belt separating Droitwich Spa and Worcester. The Stoke-on-Trent and Burton upon Trent/Swadlincote belts lie around 10 miles to the north.
Due to the West Midlands 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.