Rowan Moore mentions how 2.8 million people now live in areas based on the idea of the garden city (“Green belts once served a purpose, but now they are squeezing the life out of cities”, Comment).
In order to start solving the housing problem, would it not be possible to build new garden cities and suburbs? Why not allow building on some of the numerous sterile, hedgeless, fields growing cereals or monocultural ryegrass, but with the presumption that any building scheme would result in increased biodiversity? With tree planting, allotments, and front gardens not concreted over for parking numerous cars, this would be easy to achieve.
Igor Cusack
Greystones, County Wicklow
