We welcome the short, medium and long term visions, particularly in terms of protecting the openness and character of the greenbelt, green tourism and new strategies for improving access to the countryside. However, we find that, whilst protection for areas of nature conservation is frequently referred to in this section, enhancement is not. We consider that the section should be updated to reflect the need for protection and enhancement, for example in the following sections:

Objective 1 should read as follows:
'Continue to protect and enhance biodiversity whilst protecting the openness and character of the District's Green Belt'.

In the Green Tourism section (page 46), we would recommend that a paragraph is added detailing how funds raised by green tourism may be used to protect and enhance sites of ecological importance.

We also recommend that further provisions are included in Draft Policy DM23, Conservation Areas and the Green Belt, to protect and enhance areas of biodiversity and geodiversity interest when defining what should be considered acceptable development.

Also note our comments in the previous section regarding brownfield sites and ecological linkages.