Comment

Representation ID: 2936

Received: 08/09/2017

Respondent: Member of Parliament

The green belt in and around Aldridge-Brownhills constituency is one of the Black Country's key assets, providing as it does, quality open countryside, a sense of space and amenity close to areas of high-density housing and industry, safeguarding against absorption by and into Birmingham and, crucially from simply being reduced to a suburb of a "Greater Birmingham". It prevents the coalescence of villages and town communities, and the inevitable loss of identity that would entail. It enables all residents to live in areas that retain a sense of local
community. This is an issue residents in my Aldridge- Brownhills constituency feel strongly about.

As an advocate of a 'brownfield first' approach, I remain convinced that our focus must remain on renewing and regenerating previously used land to make it suitable for developmentbefore seeking to develop or build on any new land. It is only by identifying and tru ly making brownfield sites and other already or previously utilised or underused sites a priority, that any potential to develop on them will be unlocked and imagined, whether through public or private investment. If we do not take brownfield sites seriously there wi ll never be an incentive to clean up and regenerate disused sites in the hearts of our towns, and our green belt wi ll remain at risk of being lost forever.