London
commuter belt
The
London commuter belt is the name given
to the built-up area surrounding and running into
Greater
London, but not administered as part of it. The boundaries are not fixed and
tend to rise as travel speeds increase, and could currently be considered to stretch
as far as
Reading,
Guildford, and
Milton
Keynes, but is generally considered to include
Most
of the undeveloped parts of this area lies within a designated Metropolitan
green
belt so that further significant development is generally resisted by District
Councils backed by the Planning Inspectorate. It was expected that had this policy
not been adopted during the 1940s and 1950s the area that the commuter belt covers
would have been fully urbanized by about 1980, and the boundaries of
Greater
London might well have been more extensive. The approval of a second runway
at Stansted Airport or the tendering of domestic train services along the international
railway being built between Stratford and Ashford can be confidently expected
to pull the area's limits outwards in north easterly and south easterly directions
(respectively) bringing greater symmetry to the commuter belt as seen from above.
