NOTTINGHAMSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST

MONITORING THE PLANNING SYSTEM

THE BIG PICTURE

England seems beset by strategies - Local Plans, County plans, Mineral Plans, Regional Guidance it seems to go on and on. And it is important to try and influence these as they control where significant housing, factories and mineral extraction are going to occur over the next decade. These weighty tomes also provide the policies under which decisions are made.

So for example the last draft of the Rushcliffe Local Plan not only indicated where Rushcliffe wanted to put any major housing developments (and if accepted that land would carry a presumption in favour of allowing development) it also indicated the policies under which development would occur. Included in the policies was a presumption against developments effecting SSSI`s unless there is an overriding need, but a second policy included a presumption in favour of developments on County Important Wildlife Sites unless there are strong reasons not to. The Trust is happy with the first policy and trying to get the presumption behind the first reversed to a presumption AGAINST development unless there is a compelling reason to go ahead.

All this absorbs a lot of Trust staff time writing responses and attending enquiries to resolve differences. But as it sets the framework in which planning decisions are made it is important work.

AT A LOCAL LEVEL

The bulk of planning decisions are made at District level by councils such as Rushcliffe. Every week a planning lists is published containing all the Planning Applications that have been received and are to be considered. These will have been submitted by individuals wanting extension, companies altering their premises, but also new builds be it for one house or a thousand. A few issues like Mineral extraction are dealt with at a County level, whereas major road widening etc. is handled by the Government Office of the East Midlands.

To cope with this the Wildlife Trust as a two tier structure. At a local level a number of members take it in turn to trawl through the planning list to look at anything that might have an impact. Probably 90% can be ignored. But we are looking for barn conversions (bats & owls), possible effects on trees & hedgerows or loss of grassland ie anything that might impact on our local wildlife. All the low key stuff is responded to at the local level on behalf of NWT, writing to the Development Control Office with details of any objection or concern.

The bigger applications get passed onto the Trust office where the relevant Conservation Office steps in. Again the response is to Rushcliffe Development Control. But more significant developments can lead to a Public Enquiry at which the Trust's Conservation Officers may give evidence.

This two tier split enables a much more wide ranging level of response to local planning issues as the full time Conservation staff simply do not have the time to deal with anything but the bigger issues.