Response to Local Plan Theme: Biodiversity and green spaces from John Meed
I am delighted that the local plan includes Biodiversity as one of its themes and in general terms I support the objectives and priorities set out. I will submit some suggestions for possible improvement in my response to individual policy areas.
This theme contains documents that operate on three different levels:
• The Greater Cambridge Local Plan – First Proposals. In some cases (eg Policy BG/BG: Biodiversity and geodiversity) this gives detailed, measurable objectives; in other cases (eg Policy BG/GI: Green infrastructure) the objectives are more general.
• The Biodiversity and Green Spaces Topic Paper sets out more background for each policy. In some cases (eg Policy BG/GI: Green infrastructure) this is where more detailed objectives can be found.
• The Greater Cambridge Green Infrastructure Opportunity Mapping presents a further level of detail, principally for Policy BG/GI: Green infrastructure. This document sets more detail for individual initiatives.
As I understand it, once adopted, the Local Plan itself will be the only document that would have weight in determining a planning application. There is therefore a key question about which elements of the other two documents need to be included within the eventual Plan.
• For example, Policy BG/BG: Biodiversity and geodiversity already has specific objectives that are detailed and measurable within the Local Plan – First Proposals.
• By contrast, for Policy BG/GI: Green infrastructure, the objectives for individual objectives are contained in the Topic Paper. There is very real risk that these objectives, and in consequence the entire Greater Cambridge Green Infrastructure Opportunity Mapping, will have no weight in planning applications.
As the local plan develops this needs to be clarified. I am making specific submissions for Initiatives 3 and 14. In both cases I believe that the objectives in the supporting documents must be included within the local plan, though I recommend some changes to the objectives. I have studied the other initiatives less closely but I would imagine that a similar case could be made for them as well.
John Meed, December 2021
John Meed is a researcher and writer who lives in south Cambridge. He conducts regular surveys on behalf of the British Trust for Ornithology, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. For the last ten years he has carried out a detailed ecological survey of one square kilometre of green belt south of Cambridge Biomedical Campus.