'Green Belt', Archie Clark

Our speaker this week was Archie Clark. Archie has been a resident of Currie for many years and has taken a keen interest on behalf of local residents in all matters relating to planning.

Archie gave us a history of planning through the centuries to the president day. He specifically highlighted the first Civic Survey and Plan for Edinburgh produced by Abercrombie and Plumstead in 1949. The first official Local Development Plan was produced in 1957. This highlighted the need to limit further expansion in the City, prevent the merging of built up areas, prevent the loss of agricultural land and preserve and enhance the landscape. The Plan has subsequently been modified over the years to include 5 other areas.

Archie then showed us how the Green Belt has been eroded over the last 100 years due to;
The pressure from developers,
The need to build more houses for the expanding community
The increased value of land with planning permission.
He informed us there were now 17 applications to build houses in our local area and although no planning consent had been given it was only a matter of time.

Archie concluded that if we are not to overrun the Green Belt we would have to build more efficiently and build upwards to save space.

A vote of thanks was given by  RoyJohnson