Welwyn Garden City, and BNG focused planning

Sometimes I feel a bit like I kind of landed in a place I never really chose to live but it is nice living in a Garden City, where even an urban walk is a Nice Time because the landscaping and tree scape is so pleasant and well planned.

The Garden City movement aimed to marry town and country for the benefit of wellbeing.

It was a response to the horrors of the London slums and the way its sprawl consumed all in its path, leaving naught but urban gloom.

Ecologically, a cool feature is the encapsulation of existing turf, woodlands, hedgerows and trees into its infrastructure green spaces which means relics of the dry grassland communities once typical of the area run throughout, with some really nice acid verges.

WGC is well known locally for its botanical surprises and that is all down to Ebenezer Howard's vision.

It was innovative and a real model of how urban planning can be. I try to bring these principles into my recommendations in an effort to dissuade against the heartbreaking modern practice of razing all to the ground and starting again.

There is literally no replacement for onsite habitat retention and in the modern age of BNG and Nature Recovery Networks, we can learn much from Welwyn Garden City.

#townplanning #gardencitymovement