Source: https://richardwilsonecology.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/national-planning-policy-guidance-part-2-some-more-thoughts/
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National Planning Policy Guidance (Part 2 – Some more thoughts) | Richard Wilson Ecology
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National Planning Policy Guidance (Part 2 – Some more thoughts)
April 7, 2014 by Richard Wilson
About a month ago, the National Planning Policy Guidance (NPPG) was published and I wrote the first of my blog entries shortly afterwards. And in it, I wrote:
And here I present the first confusing element of the new NPPG (in relation to biodiversity remember). The new NPPG makes reference to the Government Circular in Paragraph 11 and Paragraph 16 of the Natural Environment section.
I was referring to the different tenses mentioning Government Circular 06/05 Biodiversity and Geological Conservation in the respective paragraphs. One referred to it in the past tense, the other in the current; so it wasn’t clear whether the Circular remained extant, or not. So I e-mailed the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) with two queries relating to this and another point. This week, I received the reply.
DCLG wrote that “Circular 06/2005, which is a joint circular with Defra, has not been cancelled and remains extant.”.
So that clears this up. Government Circular 06/2005 remains extant and a live document. Unlike the the 13-page list of guidance documents that have met the shredder. One guidance document relating to biodiversity has been cancelled, that being Planning for Biodiversity and Geological Conservation: A Guide to Good Practice, which underpinned Planning Statement 9.
However, there are nine documents that are related to the broader environment which have been cancelled:
Evaluation of Environmental Information for Planning Projects: A Good Practice Guide (1994);
MPG 14: Environment Act 1995: review of mineral planning permissions (1995) and related annexes;
Preparation of Environmental Statements for Planning Projects That Require Environmental Assessment: A Good Practice Guide (1995);
Circular 02/99 – Environmental Impact Assessment (1999);
Environmental Impact Assessment: A guide to procedures (2000);
Note on Environmental Impact Assessment Directive for Local Planning Authorities (2004);
Letter to Chief Planning Officers (2006): Planning Applications: Arrangements for Consulting Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment as a NonStatutory Consultee;
Environmental Impact Assessment and Reviews of Mineral Planning Conditions (2008); and
Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – Implications of recent judgments 18 Nov 2009.
A quick perusal of these documents doesn’t immediately alert me to any specific concerns relating to biodiversity and nature conservation but that is not to say that their demise will be beneficial or neutral. Indeed, Martin Goodall’s planning blog on this subject condemns the NPPG and the loss of much useful guidance “…which, in my professional opinion, it was folly to scrap.“.
The other query put to DCLG related specifically to Paragraph 16: How should biodiversity be taken into account in preparing a planning application?
Paragraph 16 clearly deals with biodiversity and not just European Protected Species (under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010) such as great crested newts; or domestic protected species (e.g. under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) such as the water vole.
Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus). It’s biodiversity, but not as DCLG know’s it (see paragraphs below for explanation)
In the second sub-paragraph of Paragraph 16, the NPPG states:
Where an Environmental Impact Assessment is not needed it might still be appropriate to undertake an ecological survey, for example, where protected species may be present. Separate guidance is to be published by Defra on statutory obligations in regard to protected species which will replace the advice previously set out in Circular 06/05: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation.
[Note: bold text is my emphasis and the hyperlink connected to the word ‘guidance’ links to Defra’s website on the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives Review].
Now, does this ‘separate guidance’ refer to all biodiversity or just, as the hyperlinked text implies, only European Protected Species. In my view, this is not particularly clear, espcially as Paragraph 16 is deaing with biodiversity. On first reading, it would suggest that the new separate guidance will be for robins, as well as for bats.
A bat and a robin. NPPG isn’t clear as to which ‘species’ are being referred to (in my opinion).
DCLG replied stating that:
…the hyperlink in Paragraph 16 of the Natural Environment guidance has not been made in error as the sentence within which it is embedded deals specifically with European Protected Species…
The link refers to a review of guidance that forms part of Defra’s Smarter Guidance project. The project is in the process of comprehensively reviewing all user-facing guidance provided by Defra and its agencies. This includes unpublished draft guidance produced following the Habitats Review as well as all other published Government biodiversity guidance. I am not in a position to advise on the timetable for this work.
Hang on a second! If Paragraph 16 is seeking to allow an individual to understand how biodiversity is taken in to account in the planning system, why insert a reference to new guidance on European Protected Species here? Surely it would be better to just refer to it in Paragraph 11? In doing so, this would remove the confusion (or may be I am just easily confused)? This may seem a pedantic point to make; but if the purpose of the new guidance is to present it in a usable and accessible way, it doesn’t seem to have got off to an auspicious start.
So to conclude Part 2, whilst Government Circular 06/2005 remains extant, ironically (based on DCLG’s response), it will be amended (Paragraphs 103 to 117 inclusive) at a future date though the timetable for this has yet to be finalised.
My final entry (Part 3), will form the next blog.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ecology, Ecology & Planning, Government Circular 06/05, Government Nature Conservation Policy, National Planning Policy Framework, National Planning Policy Guidance, NPPG, Planning, Planning Policy | 1 Comment
on May 26, 2014 at 17:42 | Reply Summer Surveys | Richard Wilson Ecology
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