Tightening Our Green Belt

  • Chanel Irvine

The small heritage village of Otford is an idyllic part of Kent, 40 minutes South-East of Central London. Like many of its neighbouring countryside villages, it is surrounded by a metropolitan Green Belt; land that has been designated primarily to protect the village from urban sprawl. Beyond this, it is used for agriculture by local farmers, which has been an essential and valued part of village life and its surroundings for generations. The open landscape, with its scattered woodlands, ensures its popularity with residents as well as the many daily visiting walkers, hikers, horse-riders and cyclists. Home to some 3,500 people and classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Otford’s land has a distinctive character so precious that it has been recognised as a national interest to safeguard it. This Green Belt land preserves the rural setting of Otford village; the tapestry of unspoilt rolling hills and well-tended, fertile fields of the Darent Valley and the Vale of Holmesdale. The land is primarily arable in nature, though it also supports cattle and sheep on the North Downs pastures and along the low-lying southern river plain. The well- established fields are mostly bordered by ancient hedging with native plant species that support the nature of the countryside. At present, a significant part of Otford’s Green Belt, which lies between an industrial estate and the village, is under threat of being developed for the estate’s expansion. It is currently separated from Otford’s residential area by the east-west M26 motorway and by a beautiful stretch of land that acts as a water-retention area in the event of the River Darent flooding, providing rich grazing for the sheep that currently occupy its fields. This part of the Green Belt is where the proposed expansion is to take place. It is valued by all residents as a breathing space that establishes the village as an independent, rural community, separated from the northern urban area of Sevenoaks. All of Otford’s green spaces and open areas of recreational and agricultural land are held dear by all who live there. They are an integral component to its charming nature and overall quality of life within the village. Losing this land could mark the beginning of further development in the area, tightening and potentially erasing Otford’s precious Green Belt completely.