Land Use Management Issues of the Urban Fringe in the UK

It is difficult to define the urban fringe using a specific geographical designation in the physical planning system because the existence of the urban fringe is certainly not equal in all directions from the inner urban area to the rural area, and is often a discontinuous spatial phenomenon from the inner fringe to the urban shadow. Nevertheless, the urban fringe raises land use management issues which stem from its own peculiar set of land use characteristics. For example, in the UK, how the public can enjoy access to the countryside in the urban fringe while at the same time recognising and acknowledging the importance of landowners and farmers property rights\ulcorner how can a poor quality environment and degraded landscape be improved aesthetically and physically to meet the multiple recreational needs of a diverse population when local authorities are confronted with limited ability to fund and acquire land for these purposes\ulcorner The challenge of addressing these land use management issues necessitates approaches which build a coalition of interest groups and public and non-government organizations in the management processes in order to improve the physical, economic and social environments and facilitate the management mechanism.