Sunderland, United Kingdom
City population: 271734
Duration: pre-1990 – ongoing
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level
Project area: 35000000 m2
Type of area: Central Business District / City Centre, Other
Last updated: October 2021

The project involves the formation of a statutory Green Belt of 3,500 hectares as part of the broad strategy of the Tyne & Wear County Structure Plan to restrain the further spread of the built environment and to safeguard the city's countryside from encroachment (Ref 2). The Green Belt prevents small villages to merge with large towns, preserving their individual identities, and also accommodates a wide variety of the borough's environmental assets, including Local Wildlife Sites and wildlife corridors (ref 3). It is claimed to contribute significantly to the city's green infrastructure (Ref 1 & 4). The Green Belt boundaries have not changed since 1998 (Ref 1), but it is currently (in 2020) under reassessment in response to the development needs of adjacent towns (Ref 1). Thus even though the intervention started almost 50 years ago, it is an ongoing process.

One of the areas under the Green Belt
Sunderland City Council
https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/media/18571/SD43-Sunderland-Green-Belt-Review-Stage-1-Core-Strategy-Growth-Options-Stge-March-2016-/pdf/SD43_Sunderland_Green_Belt_Review_Stage_1_-_Core_Strategy_Growth_Options_Stage_March_2016.pdf?m=636217384651470000

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Green playgrounds and school grounds
  • Blue infrastructure
  • Riverbank/Lakeside greens
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Large urban parks or forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
  • Green corridors and green belts
  • Community gardens and allotments
  • Allotments
  • Community gardens
  • Horticulture
  • Rivers/streams/canals/estuaries

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity restoration
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Regulation of built environment
  • Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
  • Inclusive governance
  • Effective management
  • Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure

Focus

Creation of new green areas, Maintenance and management of urban nature, Strategy, plan or policy development, Monitoring and maintenance of habitats and/or biodiversity

Project objectives

1. To prevent the unrestricted sprawl of the build-up area of Sunderland, 2. Assist in safeguarding the city's countryside from further encroachment, 3. Assist the regeneration of the urban area of the city, 4. Preserve the special character of Springwell Village, 5. Keeping land permanently open, (Ref 2), 6. Accommodate the borough's environmental assets, 7. Improve opportunities for recreation, aesthetics and biodiversity, (Ref 3). 8. To concentrate investment in the existing built-up environment (Ref 2).

Implementation activities

Inclusion of specific open green spaces in a statutory Green Belt that is to be kept permanently open (only to be changed under very specific circumstances). At Stage 1 (Growth Options) it seeks to establish how well the fields meet the five Green Belt objectives set by the NPPF and eliminate from further consideration areas of the Green Belt that are essential to its function and purpose. The following stage (Stage 2) seeks to examine the remainder of the Green Belt in more detail to establish any other constraints that impact the wider objectives of the Green Belt. (Ref 2 & 3).

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity restoration:

  • Rehabilitate and restore damaged or destroyed ecosystems
  • Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)
  • Restore ecological connectivity

Main beneficiaries

  • Local government/Municipality
  • Private sector/Corporate/Company
  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Government-led

Type of initiating organisation

  • Regional government
  • Local government/municipality

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Unknown

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

By the city council.

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Yes (1. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is the first international treaty devoted to the management and protection of landscapes within Europe. The Government signed the convention in 2007, which embeds the convention in UK policy and through the management of landscapes. Thus altough the establishment of the Green Belt was not in response to this policy, its current management is (Ref 2). )
... a national policy or strategy? Yes (1. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) produced in March 2012 states that once established, Green Belt boundaries should only be altered in exceptional circumstances. This did not impact the establishment of the Green Belt but does influence its current management (Ref 2). 2. What comprises the Green Belt is dictated by the national Green Belt policy (Ref 3). 3. The need to preserve the identity of adjacent towns is guided by the "National Character Areas" guidance (Ref 2))
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (The Green Belt boundaries were most recently set in response to the local Unitary Development Plan (UDP) in 1998 (Ref 2). )

Financing

Total cost

Not applicable

Source(s) of funding

  • Unknown

Type of funding

  • Unknown

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Green space and habitat
  • Promotion of naturalistic styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Increased number of protection areas
  • Increased green space area
  • Increase in protected green space areas
  • Reduced biodiversity loss
  • Increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales
  • Restoration of derelict areas

Economic impacts

  • Stimulate development in deprived areas

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape / infrastructure
  • Increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts, Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Yes

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

Yes

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

Ref 1: Sunderland City Council. (2013). Sunderland local plan: Core strategy and development management policies draft revised preferred options. [attached]
Ref 2: Sunderland City Council. (2016). Green belt review: Stage 1 - core strategy growth options stage. Rtrieved from Source link on 11th November, 2020.
Ref 3: South Tyneside Council. (2012). South Tyneside Green Belt and landscape background paper. [attached]
Ref 4: Sunderland Partnership. (2011). Green Infrastructure Strategy Framework. [attached]
Ref 5: Sunderland City Council. (n.d.). Sunderland Green Belt. Retrieved from Source link on 11th November, 2020.
Ref 6: Sunderland City Council. (1998). UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN . Retrieved from Source link on 11th November, 2020.
Ref 7: Sunderland City Council. (2016). South Tyneside Strategic Land Review
Draft Site Assessments Report. Retrieved from Source link on 11th November, 2020.
Ref 8: Ledwith, L. (2019) Three Sunderland green belt sites could be removed from housing plan. Sunderland Echo. Retrieved from Source link on 11th November, 2020.