News Maidstone makes protecting nature a top planning priority for new development
A new report has revealed that only half of environmental measures promised by developers as part of planning conditions, are actually implemented across England. This is based on an anonymised survey of representative local authorities.
However, the same report has singled out Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) as a national leader in proactively tackling this issue and therefore setting an example as to how to engage with developers for better results.
The report, ‘Lost Nature: Housing developers fail to deliver their ecological commitments’ carried out by Wild Justice, a not-for-profit nature conservation organisation surveyed 43 developments across five local planning authorities. It found that only 53% had complied with planning conditions such as tree-planting, installing bird and bat boxes and sowing wildflower grasslands.
Cllr Tony Harwood MBC Cabinet Member for Planning Policy and Management said:
Nature is under unprecedented attack and is declining at a catastrophic rate, so we are gratified that Maidstone Borough Council’s efforts to protect local biodiversity have been singled out for praise in this influential national report.“We are determined to work proactively with developers and other partners to deliver both high quality homes and nature recovery. With the government aiming to build 1.5million new homes in the next five years, it’s more important than ever to ensure that we have the policies and resources needed to protect, enhance and expand wildlife habitats.”
As part of the report’s recommendations to improve compliance, Wild Justice interviewed MBC’s Landscape Enforcement Office, Ben Barrett, and points to his role as a ‘valuable model for councils elsewhere.’
Appointed two years ago by environmentally-conscious leaders who recognised the issue, Ben is responsible for inspecting development sites to check whether or not landscape planning conditions have been complied with, which includes looking at species, coverage, timing of planting and maintenance. Developers are always given the opportunity to rectify any missed or failed landscape or planting proposals, but when these are not remedied, Ben has the power to issue ‘Breach of Conditions’ notices to ensure that trees and other landscape features are put into place.
Ben’s innovative role demonstrates MBC’s dedication to nature conservation. The council has made further important commitments to nature recovery over the past year, including adopting a 20% biodiversity net gain policy in the new Local Plan Review (March 2024) which is double that required by national government (10%) and making an ambitious Nature Recovery Declaration (July 2024).
The release of the latest version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which promotes increased house-building means the report comes at a significant time.
Tony continues:
“The findings of this report are a reminder to developers that environmental and wildlife protection obligations are not optional and will be robustly enforced. Our Landscape Enforcement Officer Ben and his colleagues are doing an outstanding job, and we are committed to continuing that promises made to our community on protecting and restoring nature are kept.”“We would urge the public to be vigilant, and to get in touch if they’re concerned about potential environmental or wildlife breaches in developments in their local area.”
Residents can report feedback or flag concerns about local developments at PlanningEnforcement@maidstone.gov.uk