§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will publish figures showing the area of each national park in England and Wales;
(2) if he will give the approximate length of each heritage coast in England and Wales;
(3) if he will give the approximate area of each confirmed area of outstanding natural beauty and each area of great landscape value, respectively, in England and Wales.
§ Mr. WaldegraveDetails of national parks, confirmed areas of outstanding natural beauty and heritage coasts as at 31 March 1986 are provided in the Countryside Commission's "Annual Report 1985–86", copies of which are available in the Library. There have been no changes since that date.
Areas of great landscape value are proposed by local authorities in their development plans, and contain policies to protect rural areas not defined under any statutory provision. There is no common approach to the definition of these areas and each local authority is free to propose its own set of particular types. No figures are available for the amount of land covered.
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many conservation areas there are in each county, London borough and metropolitan borough in England.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI am afraid that this information could be obtained only by inquiring of individual local authorities. Designation of conservation areas does not require my right hon. Friend's approval. We believe that about 5,000 areas have been designated in England overall.
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give the approximate area of each established green belt in England and the percentage of the area of each county, London borough and metropolitan borough, which the green belt covers.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI regret that information in the form requested is not available. The approximate areas of approved green belts in England are as follows.
Green Belt Area thousand acres Metropolitan 1,200 West Midlands 650 Greater Manchester, Central Lancashire 750 Merseyside/Wirral G.B. Tyne and Wear 200 Nottingham/Derby 200 York 50 South and West Yorkshire 800 Oxford 100 Avon 150 Gloucester/Cheltenham 20 Stoke-on-Trent 125 Cambridge 27 South West Hampshire/South East Dorset 220 Burton/Swadlincote 2 Lancaster and Fylde Coast 6