The Rurban Belt

As more and more of Newcastle and Tyneside's Green Belts go under concrete the focus is on saving what's left. What is that exactly? Much of it is rye grass and barbed wire, jig-saw puzzled by Sitka spruce lozenges; or blocked out by golf courses. None of these places are friendly to walkers and cyclists and there are few footpaths and these not well sign posted. It leaves one thinking 'What is the Green Belt for?'

In defending the Green Belt in recent years the alternative sites for house building have often been focused on 'brownfield', land where industry once stood, now cleared of buildings, extensive concrete floors or runways, pockets of self sown birch and buddleia sprung up uninvited. Build on these sites first seems to be the argument. Oddly, in my experience brownfield sites are potentially if not actually, much richer in terms of their eclectic plant and animal populations than the, sainted by historic legislation and custom, Green Belt.

Recently I have been on two expeditions to see what old industrial land looks like. The experience is much more positive and exciting than looking at fields of chemical sprayed grass and crops.

Brockley Whins. View to the east from former Bolden Colliery.

There is something marvellous at seeing nature making a come back. There once stood a large colliery and a bank of railway yards transporting coal to the near by River Tyne. Long gone, the resultant landscape, bruised by heavy usage. In places it's possible to see the planted woodland is growing from a mixture of limestone ballast deposits and colliery waste. Yet wildflowers, particularly one's attracted to higher pH levels. In places a kind of grass meadow has formed. rich in Bird's-foot-trefoil. In wetter spots,  orchids and yellow flags. Of concern, and not just at this site, is the lack of flying insects. We seem to be in a time when the once familiar 'hum' of a warm summer's day in our countryside is memory.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to be optimistic. Whitethroats, Great Tits, Chaffinches still singing, ubiquitous Magpies, a Moorhen obviously displeased to have its young bothered by a passer by, and a Heron beside the burn that bounds the site were all welcome. Even a few butterflies, common blue and gatekeeper types.

Have we got it right about Green Belts and nature? It seems to me not. If I am honest I think the what the Green Belt stands for in people's imagination is not meeting current needs. A Green Belt that is uninviting, cannot be explored needs re-examining. It's time to think about what delivers experience and connections rather than mere expanse. I'm not trying to make the case for overwheening greed, opportunism or simply bad planning, such as is the case today around the north east, but bringing a fresh point of view to these discussions. A nature beyond reach, is not nature in people's lives at all. It's a concept out of reach.

Online gallery here (Off site link)