Green infrastructure
Green infrastructure (GI) is defined as the network of multi-functional green spaces and linkages required to meet a community's environmental, social and economic needs. It consists of both public and private land, with and without public access, in urban and rural locations. Examples of GI features include: parks and gardens, village and town greens, natural/ semi-natural wildlife habitat, historic landscapes, nature reserves, heritage sites, waterways and public rights of way, cycleways and other recreational routes.BRCC is committed to protecting and enhancing the county's GI in accordance with both current and future community need. This is particularly important given the county's existing GI deficiencies and the planned development of 90000 more new households in the county by 2031.
The value of GI is supported by Government policy, with key references in the national Sustainable Communities Plan, the regional spatial strategy (the East of England Plan) and the Milton Keynes South Midlands (MKSM) Sub Regional Strategy.
BRCC is a founding member of the Beds and Luton GI Consortium – a multi-agency forum established in 2004 to promote the need to plan for and invest in GI at both a strategic and local level. The Consortium has been effective in influencing planning policy (including the East of England Plan and MKSM Sub Regional Strategy) to take account of GI investment needs and has recently published its own strategic GI plan for Beds and Luton. This latter plan is being used to guide strategic GI investment and to provide a framework for more detailed district and parish level GI planning.
In addition to GI planning, BRCC has also been effective in supporting land owners/ managers and communities with developing and delivering a wide range of GI project activity including:
- P3/ Getting Involved!
- Local authority owned land
- Town/ parish council owned land
- Biodiversity
- Geodiversity
- Historic environment and landscape
- Parish GI plans
- Promoted trails
- Outdoor play
- Urban regeneration
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