Green belt land as allotments & new orchards

[MarkiB]

Oliver Tickell suggests that green belt land be used as allotments and for
growing fruit, as well as a leisure resource for communities living nearby.
Farming Today Radio-4, broadcast on 29 Jan 2010 

Listen to the podcast here:
http://castroller.com/podcasts/FarmingToday/1447634

Mark Fisher who was involved with Springfield Community Gardens nr Bradford
around 10 years ago made the case for utilisation of green belt land for
sustainable development in an article in (I think) Issue 4 of Chapter 7
News back in 2001. He argued that normal planning controls could be
released for proposed Low Impact Development (LID) if the LID showed
positive intent to continue the agricultural nature of the landscape,
through Section 106 agreements subjecting planning permission to a
comprehensive design brief (similar to, he said, that drawn up for the West
Lothian lowland crofting schemes). A new definition of appropriate
development in the countryside would encompass persons and families
involved in the management of agricultural activity in the landscape. He
argued that such planning agreements could come with greater powers of
enforcement to prevent reversion of agricultural use to purely residential,
and that a policy enabling LID rather than opening a floodgate for
unsightly developments in the countryside, would actually offer greater
control than planning officers currently have.  (REF: Taken from the
report: "Low Impact development & Periurban Productivity in SE Bradford",
by Local Agenda 21 Unit, Strategic Support Division, Bradford Council).