The UK Statistic of the Year, according to the Royal Statistical Society, is .1% .

That’s the percentage of the surface of UK that is designated CUF (Continuous Urban Fabric), in other words, concreted over. It comes from a recent study from the University of Sheffield, which showing that, contrary to popular belief, only 5.4% of the UK is urban.

You can find the report on www.rss.org.uk.

Closer analysis shows that urban and industrial fabric covers less than 22% of the St Albans and Harpenden area, while 66% is arable and pasture, a whopping 5.73% is given over to sport and leisure and 4.5% is forest, while the rest is road, rail and airport.

So we have much to rejoice in! All the more delightful coming in the week when the Verulam Residents’ Association, led by local hero Timothy Beecroft, saved the lovely Bemond Lane Field from developers, arguing that it is an asset of community value.

We all need to be activists. We all have a civic duty to support sustainable, socially useful, attractive housing in our area, and we have an emotional and spiritual duty to enjoy, as actively as we can, our forests, footpaths and sports fields.

Don’t just moan about encroachment onto the Green Belt -  go out and breathe in the lovely green gift that God gave us, which, thank heavens and thanks to local heroes,  still makes up – statistic alert! – 94.6% of our country.

Make walking your New Year’s resolution and your act of prayer.

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