Chief executives from Wildlife Trusts around the UK have issued 10 key recommendations to the Government – in a bid to convince the Secretary of State, Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, to stop the dismantling of the current planning system.
Instead, The Wildlife Trusts want a land-use decision-making system that will stand the test of time, including the impacts of climate change.
At The Wildlife Trusts’ annual conference – held near the proposed ‘eco-town’ site in Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire – the movement’s chief executive Stephanie Hilborne, said: “The Government is fundamentally altering the planning system through the Planning Bill; changes to decisions about regional planning in England and the ‘eco-towns’ initiative.
An opportunity to act
“We have the opportunity now to make the right decisions to plan for the next 50 years through the adaptation plan in the Climate Change Bill. As the Stern Review suggests, this should include key decisions about land-use. In this context we are extremely disappointed by the Government’s proposals for various changes to the planning system and for new towns by the back door.”
The Wildlife Trusts, which have 765,000 members, engage in planning policies and decisions that affect land-use – primarily through the different levels of the planning system – regional spatial strategies, local development frameworks, presenting evidence to planning inquiries and scrutinising planning applications.
Natural environment at centre stage
The Wildlife Trusts use their local knowledge and expertise in scrutinising around 90,000 planning applications each year to ensure that the natural environment is protected and enhanced. The Wildlife Trusts want their valuable contribution to planning decisions at every level to continue. The natural environment must become centre stage.
Stephanie Hilborne added: “Our contact with the public shows enormous support for wildlife and also concern about planning issues. We believe these concerns were reflected in the close vote on the new clause proposed for the Planning Bill last week.
"This clause, supported by MPs from all parties, would have required National Policy Statements to demonstrate their contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation.”
From a recent survey by ComRes, around nine out of 10 (88%) of all MPs agree that the natural environment is important in helping the UK to adapt to the impact of climate change.
And, whilst 72% of Conservatives and 82% of Liberal Democrats believed that the Planning Bill would not improve the protection of the natural environment, a quarter (26%) of Labour MPs also believed this. This may go some way to explain the close vote in the House of Commons earlier this month.
Ten recommendations from The Wildlife Trusts
The Wildlife Trusts call on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears MP, to:
Planing Bill
1. Ensure National Policy Statements demonstrate their contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as promoted in the all-party new clause at the Bill’s Report Stage
2. Require the Infrastructure Planning Commission to take decisions according to the principles of sustainable development
3. Ensure that the Infrastructure Planning Commission includes members with ecological expertise
4. Ensure that the statutory agencies - Natural England, Countryside Council for Wales and the Environment Agency - are statutory consultees, and their views taken into account
Environmentally sustainable regional planning in England
5. Fundamentally restructure the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) into Sustainable Regional Development Agencies with a strong sustainable development purpose
6. Ensure the RDAs become ‘fit for purpose’ and inspire public confidence that they can take on a planning role. This means becoming, open, transparent and consultative
Truly ecological eco-towns
7. Remove any eco-towns from the current list of 15 which damage or impact upon Sites of Special Scientific Interest (including European sites) or Local Wildlife Sites; and ensure that the impact of others on the natural environment is minimised
8. Ensure that local planning authorities, involving local people and organisations such as Wildlife Trusts, decide eco-town applications through the planning process. This should not be guided by a new ‘location specific’ planning policy statement which by-passes effective local scrutiny of the proposals
9. Amend the key criteria for eco-towns to ensure that nature is incorporated into the design so they integrate wildlife-rich ‘green infrastructure’ such as sustainable drainage schemes and open spaces for communities to enjoy
10. Review the Code for Sustainable Homes to ensure its biodiversity requirements become mandatory, sending a strong signal to all developers that the natural environment has a high priority in the design of housing.