Quote: coco the fullback "do you mean green belt land which is brownfiield can be developed but green belt which is greenfield can't??
Does all green belt land get automatically called in for government review?'"
Green belt land is exactly that. It is designated to be undeveloped and provide a "green belt" of undeveloped land between developed land.
Green belt land can be developed but as it is not designated as developable land then firstly the Local Authority has to support the development of the land and any planning application. When a planning application is submitted there is extensive consultation with various bodies including statutory bodies such as the Highways Agency, Environment Agency, Natural England etc. and also the local community can pass comments.
As the land is Green Belt it will automatically be "called in" by Govenment Office. It can then do 2 things. If its happy with the application it can pass it back to the Local Authority and allow it to determine the application or if it feels that the application has far reaching consequiences it can call a Public Enquiry which can take up to 2 years to come to a conclusion.
The application at Newmarket will probably be "called in", we have to hope there is so much support for the project (and little opposition) that the Goverment Office passes the application back to Wakefield MDC to determine without the need for a Public Enquiry.
