Since then they have provided green space and fresh air for 30 million people and protected some of our most precious farmland and woodlands.

The Green Belt protects some of Yorkshire's most important countryside by limiting the outward growth of cities such as York and Leeds and encouraging urban regeneration instead of greenfield development.

Yet with planning permissions on Green Belt rocketing across the country,we are in serious danger of undermining its integrity, and condemning future generations to urban sprawl. 

When the then housing minister Duncan Sandys MP introduced the national Green Belt policy he argued that it was our duty to prevent urban sprawl ‘for the wellbeing of our people and for the preservation of the countryside’. 

We believe that duty remains, and that is why we are urging you to support CPRE’s Our Green Belt campaign and calling on the Government to make sure our Green Belt is protected for those future generations.