London's Green Belt The " green belt" policy of the London
County Council has encountered in Buckinghamshire a check which is worth thinking about. The L.C.C., it will be remem- bered, offers 50 per cent. of the cost of approved schemes to preserve unbuilt-on areas in the Home Counties. The area in this case is a picturesque 1,000 acres in the Chilterns, for which 1140,000 is asked. The price is thought locally to be rather high, and is perhaps more than today could easily be realized for the property in a block, though less than could be obtained by peddling it away in fragments over a few years. The L.C.C. offering 170,000, the Bucks County Council propose that itself and the local Rural District Council should con- tribute 135,000 apiece. But the latter demurs. Its rateable value, especially since the De-rating Act, is small to raise £35,000 on ; and why should it shoulder a burden in order to provide playgrounds for Londoners? This is not an attitude of pure unreason ; for the project is really much more than 50 per cent, a concern of London. The difficulty arises, because we arc still trying to solve regional problems without having regional authorities.
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