Derelict land
Sir: "If all the land in England officially called derelict were restored its area could accommodate at normal density no fewer than a million homes. Thus it could replace the need for over-spill and the invasion of green land for at least five years. Alternatively, it could provide 45,000 playing fields or 90,000 acres of park. Though a journalistic simplification, this translation of spoiled land into houses or playing fields underlines how wasteful is our industrial dereliction " (John Barr in Derelict Britain 1969).
This takes into account only officially recognised dereliction and what could be done with that area. The total acreage of wasteland is put perhaps as much as three times as high, much of it in the most densly populated parts of England. Until the official figures take into account this extra area the problem will remain unresolved — especially as in Lancashire about 1,000 new acres of waste land are created annually.
F. P. M. Cook Holly Avenue, Newcastle-on-Tyne
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