The Green Infrastructure Plan in the Harlow Area is an
independent study by Chris Blandford Associates, working under the
close supervision of a Steering Group consisting of representatives
from national, regional and local organisations.
The Green Infrastructure Plan provides guidance on how the
green areas should be protected, enhanced and where appropriate
extended. Green spaces can include areas such as parks, gardens,
woods and nature reserves with or without public access; linkages
include linear features such as off-road paths, highways, rivers,
streams or hedgerows, which can provide corridors for wildlife and
connect people to open spaces.
The concept of green infrastructure planning is based on a
strategic approach to ensuring that environmental assets of natural
and cultural value are integrated with land development, growth
management and built infrastructure planning at the earliest stage.
This approach enables land management to be more proactive, less
reactive, and better integrated with efforts to manage growth and
development at all spatial planning levels. Green infrastructure
planning is therefore a key mechanism for delivering sustainable
communities and quality of life benefits within growth areas.
The Harlow, Epping Forest, the River Stort and the Lea Valley
Green Spaces Project (the Harlow Green Spaces Project), which is
part-funded by the
DCLG, aims to enhance the intrinsic character and nature
of green spaces within the Harlow Area, acquire new green spaces
for public access and to create links between these green
spaces.
The Harlow Green Spaces Project partners commissioned Chris
Blandford Associates to prepare a Green Infrastructure Plan for the
Harlow Area to provide a strategic framework and guidelines for the
implementation of a connected and multi-functional green
infrastructure network of wildlife sites, public open spaces and
green links within the countryside in and around Harlow. The GIP
comprises of the following two documents which where then broken
down into smaller parts for faster accessability.