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Across the Atlantic, Sheffield, England, was one of the first cities to begin planning a greenbelt, which it did 1938, and the UK continues to value them today. The UK’s national Green Belt policy set out in its Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government’s 2012 National Planning Policy Framework describes the intention of creating greenbelts. It reads:

The government attaches great importance to Green Belts. The fundamental aim of Green Belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open; the essential characteristics of Green Belts are their openness and their permanence.41

The policy identifies five purposes for greenbelts:

1 to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas;

2 to prevent neighboring towns from merging into one another;

3 to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment;

4 to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns; and

5 to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.42