The Bristol and Bath Green Belt was first established through the county development plans for Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. In Somerset, the policy was adopted locally in 1957 and formally, with ministerial approval, in 1966. Subsequently, the County of Avonstructure plan adopted in 1985 confirmed the general extent of the green belt, with some variations, and detailed boundaries were reviewed through local plans. In 2002, the draft Joint Structure Plan for the West of England again broadly confirmed the extent of the green belt, and set out the following policy:
"A Green Belt shall continue to surround and separate Bristol and Bath, and will be kept open in order to:
check the unrestricted sprawl of the Bristol conurbation and Bath;
assist in safeguarding the surrounding countryside from encroachment;
prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another;
preserve the setting and special character of villages, towns and historic cities; and
The policy is subject to further review as part of the West of England Joint Spatial Plan, to be submitted to the UK government in 2018.[8]
In 2017, the Centre for Cities called for more houses to be built on the Bristol greenbelt, saying that it was the only way to address the housing crisis in the area. They noted that there were only space for 4,300 homes on brownfield land, whereas the three local councils in the region aim to build 85,000 over the next twenty years.[9]
