Greens will gold plate London’s Green Belt

Today I visited Bromley with our Assembly candidates to pledge to work with Londoners and surrounding councils to make a new strategy for London’s Green Belt.

The green spaces enveloping our city are precious but neglected, which puts them under threat. We must use it or lose it and no Mayor has yet made a coherent plan to value and support the Green Belt. Green will turn our city limits into a treasure all Londoners can benefit from.

My plan to gold plate our Green Belt means working with surrounding councils to improve and protect it. As Green Mayor I’ll bring a new start, and the true leadership and vision to get this right.

Today I pledged to make a new strategy for the Green Belt which surrounds London, aimed at making sure we value and support this vital part of the city and protect it from development. 

Our detailed plans in the Green manifesto for London include:

• Increasing food production, helping small farmers and green agriculture, and making sure they have access to sell their food within the city through markets and shops.
• Improving access and rights of way, supporting more visits to the Green Belt by Londoners for exercise and leisure via Transport for London.
• A comprehensive new plan for ecology, carbon and flood prevention, including rewilding and planting new woodland.
• New green bridges across the main roads and motorways that sever habitats, developing a wider plan to link up nature sites across the area.
• Investment and support for new green energy projects.

Established over 70 years ago, London’s Green Belt is under threat – eroded by development and neglected, not helped to flourish by our current Mayor’s policies. 

Only seven per cent of the Metropolitan Green Belt is within the GLA’s area but I believe it is our duty to take a lead from City Hall to improve and protect it. These plans will be developed alongside the councils that surround London in a project that bridges party lines, and involves farmers, landowners, residents and green groups.

Work already done by Greens on the London Assembly has shown there is huge potential for London’s Green Belt land to be used for the benefit of London’s people, nature, ecology, flood protection, energy and food production. 

In February 2020, Green London Assembly Member Caroline Russell investigated the issues affecting the Green Belt, and found this precious asset is all too often taken for granted, neglected or at risk of being lost to development.

Only a Green Mayor will truly protect and make the most of London’s Green Belt, for the benefit of all our citizens.