Support

West Wickham Neighbourhood Plan - submission version January 2022

Representation ID: 59423

Received: 14/03/2022

Respondent: South Cambridgeshire District Council

Representation Summary:

Policy WWK/7 Biodiversity and green infrastructure

Paragraph 4.76 – The council’s ecologist has indicated that species rich and /or important hedgerows can be referred to as Habitats of Principal Importance under S41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. We see this as a minor amendment outside the Basic Conditions.

We welcome that the terms used in the earlier version of this policy have now been defined in the glossary. As regards ‘notable trees ‘the council’s ecologist has checked the Ancient Trees Inventory and there do not appear to be any veteran trees logged in West Wickham as is suggested in paragraph 4.77.

Paragraph 4.81 - Within this supporting text mention could be made to the new Environment Act 2021 which makes 10% biodiversity net gain mandatory on all developments from November 2023. In February 2022 SCDC adopted the Biodiversity Supplementary Planning Document and it would be useful to reference this in the Plan to provide support to the delivery of Policy WWK/7

Second section of policy – We suggest that in the first sentence ‘them ‘is changed to the identified asset or similar for clarity. Also, within this sentence the term ‘substantially outweigh’ should be defined so that a development management officer would know how to determine a planning application using this policy.