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Representation ID: 167524

Received: 26/10/2018

Respondent: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust

HABITATS REGULATIONS ASSESSMENT
We and more importantly the National Trust as site managers have consistently raised concerns over potential impacts of increased recreational pressure on the features of interest at Wicken Fen, and have queried some of the assumptions made in the HRA report. When the original Local Plan HRA was prepared, the scale of impacts from cumulative and in combination recreational pressures on designated nature conservation sites had not yet become fully apparent. In addition, the Local Plan HRA was prepared with reference to the local plan allocation for 8-9000 homes, and not the 11,000 homes currently being put forward by the two submitted planning applications. The Wildlife Trust supports the comments made by the National Trust with respect to this issue.