Annex
NOTE ABOUT THE LONDON GREEN BELT COUNCIL
The London Green Belt Council was created in
1954 when the Government of the day was preparing to issue the
first ever circular on green belts (Department of Housing and
Local Government Circular 42/55). Some of the principal environmental
organisations of the time, including the Open Spaces Society and
the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, realising that
green belt was going to be an important and permanent feature
of the planning scene, decided that there needed to be a voluntary
organisation specialising in the subject, rather than that it
should become just another item on the agendas of organisations
which were already busy with other matters.
The LGBC is still a voluntary organisation employing
no staff. Its membership consists of organisations, not individuals,
and includes national bodies like the ones mentioned above; regional
bodies like Sane Planning in the South-East; local amenity and
residents' associations from all round an area bounded roughly
by Leighton Buzzard, Chelmsford, Tunbridge Wells and Reading,
including many organisations within greater London; county branches
and federations of such organisations; and parish councils. A
few planning authorities pay to receive papers without becoming
formal members.
The Council meets approximately quarterly in
Central London; is on Departmental consultation lists for policy
matters involving green belt considerations; issues advice Notes
to members several times a year relating to policy developments,
planning appeals; legal rulings and precedents, etc; and sends
deputations to Ministers when necessary.
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