Planning plea
Thursday 13th October
Wildlife Trust urges local supporters to stand up for wildlife in debate over national planning rules.
We have contacted thousands of our member to rally support to urgently prevent a serious threat to wildlife posed by the Government’s plans to change the planning system.
We have serious concerns about the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) and are now asking our members and supporters to help make our concerns heard.
The Wildlife Trust believes that new planning policy is needed but that its purpose should remain to balance social, economic and environmental issues, and to reflect the Government’s scale of ambition for the natural environment as set out in the Natural Environment White Paper published in June this year.
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust believes the Government should:
- remove the presumption in favour of sustainable development in the draft NPPF and reinstate the importance of the natural environment;
- require local plans to identify Nature Improvement Areas. The White Paper introduced the concept of Nature Improvement Areas: large areas where restoration of nature would have greatest priority. Land use planning will be critical to achieving these and yet they have no mention in the draft NPPF;
- protect Local Wildlife Sites – there are nearly 1,500 local wildlife sites in Nottinghamshire, and they are a major component of the varied and beautiful landscape of the county. Having had some protection to date through planning, these sites would no longer have specific protection under the NPPF.
It is this last point which perhaps gives us most intense concern. Local Wildlife Sites are fundamental to the natural environment in Nottinghamshire and there is a distinct possibility that adoption of the NPPF may undo decades of protection for these invaluable sites.
Speaking about the National Planning Policy Framework, our Chief Executive John Everitt said:
Our planning system has grown up over more than 60 years to balance land use between social needs, the economy and the environment. We fear that the new NPPF could turn the clock back by removing protection for thousands of vital wildlife areas. As a result we are mobilising our members to ensure that the Government gets the message that people care about wildlife and the environment. This is not about being anti development. We accept that development is essential, but poor development isn’t - these proposals are ill thought out and we will be regretting them for years to come.”
The charity is asking its members to respond to the Government’s official consultation by October 17th and for anyone who cares abotu wildlife to contact their MPs in the coming weeks to highlight concerns.
Mr Everitt added: “The focus of the NPPF, its presumption in favour of development and the removal of safeguards for key wildlife sites is, in our view, wholly inconsistent with the Government’s stated ambition for protecting and restoring the natural environment. Let’s change the planning system for the better and remove bureaucracy where it isn’t needed, but not at the expense of the environment upon which we all depend and the landscape we all cherish.”
