Planning

We have no legislative authority or enforcement powers - our role is to provide the council’s planning officers with sufficient guidance for them to decide whether the application complies with current planning policy and wildlife legislation, prior to determination. 

When we review an application, we use the information within the ecological report supplied with the planning application documents (usually available within the public domain on the Council’s website). We also check data held by Derbyshire Biological Records Centre (which now houses over 3 million records spanning over 60 years), we check the Local Wildlife Sites system and draw on the extensive knowledge and experience of our staff working across the County.

Where sufficient ecological information is not submitted with planning applications, we will highlight this to the planners and request additional survey work and reports as appropriate. We recommend planning conditions to secure best practice, mitigation measures, net gains and enhancements, as relevant, within a development.

In some instances, the Trust will respond as an independent organisation and object to an application. This is separate to our work under the Service Level Agreement. These instances are usually when the proposals have a significant impact on local biodiversity that cannot be satisfactorily mitigated or compensated. Examples include impacts to designated sites such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Local Wildlife Sites, Local Nature Reserves, DWT nature reserves or habitats of very high value including ancient woodlands, veteran trees, wetlands and species rich grasslands, moorlands or heaths.

Wherever possible we work with Local Planning Authorities (LPAs)  to identify areas of land that are of high value for wildlife and where development would result in significant losses and impacts. 

The earlier that an area of land can be flagged as important for biodiversity the more likely it is that Councils can take decisions that avoid or minimise impacts. For example, ensuring important areas of land are not allocated for development within Local Plans is an essential part of the planning process. Sometimes this can be difficult as planners must also consider a range of other factors and meet Government guidance.

There are often conflicts between biodiversity and development and in some cases, these cannot be avoided through forward planning e.g. biodiverse brownfield land often comes under pressure for re-development, despite the presence of protected species and habitat of high value.

Conflicts also arise because many LPAs do not have a supply of housing that meets Government requirements and developers can promote other sites that may be in green belt or on other unallocated land.

Our Team has 50 years of combined ecological experience and come from a variety of backgrounds including both ecological consultancy and the nature conservation sector. They have a detailed knowledge of the local area, the planning system, wildlife legislation and planning policy.

They review development proposals ranging from a small barn conversion to large housing schemes of many hundreds of houses. On a day-to-day basis, they review ecological survey reports, management plans, Biodiversity Net Gain Assessments, Biodiversity Metrics and Biodiversity Gain Plans.  Sometimes they visit sites to check survey information or have onsite meetings with planners or developers.

The team are members of The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and the Association of Local Government Ecologists (ALGE) and are committed to staying up to date with policy and legislation changes and regularly undertake training.  Aside from maintaining their ecological skills, they have all received training in using biodiversity metrics and are experienced in applying the metric tool to quantify losses and gains in relation to proposed development.

Ultimately our goal is to ensure that planners make the best decisions for nature and wildlife, ensuring that schemes are properly assessed against current planning policy and wildlife legislation and that developments include the best possible outcomes for wildlife. Outcomes that benefit rare and declining species and biodiverse habitats and meet the wider strategic objectives of the Derbyshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy and the biodiversity and green infrastructure policies and strategies of each Council.  

Planning applications and all accompanying information can be found on the website for each Local Planning Authority. Anyone can view this and submit comments on the application. To make your comments count, we have listed some key steps below:

• Visit the local council website and find the ‘Planning’ section. You can often search for an application using a road name or postcode if you do not know the planning reference number.
• Look at the relevant documents to gain an understanding of the proposals and the assessments that have taken place.  Useful documents include the Design and Access Statement, Proposed Site Plan or Layout and any ecological survey reports.  If ecology information has already been submitted, this may address your concerns.
• A good ecological assessment will include survey work that is usually less than 18 months old and has been undertaken by a suitably qualified ecologist.  Generally, habitat surveys should be carried out during spring and summer, but this may be less critical if habitats include gardens, intensively grazed grassland or developed land.  All protected species surveys should be undertaken before an application is determined by the LPA, so if a report contains survey recommendations, these should be carried out before any decision is made.
• For applications that are subject to mandatory 10 biodiversity net gain, check that a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment has been submitted.  This often comprises a report and a metric or sometimes just a metric in the case of very simple sites.  Check the total gains for the application.  Where less than 10% gains are calculated, additional measures will need to be secured, such as the purchase of offsite units.  Critically, enough information should be submitted to provide the council with the confidence that 10% gains can be delivered.  Sometimes this requires a lot of information upfront, in the case of complex developments that affect good quality habitats.  Other times, gains can be dealt with post-determination.
• If you think that sufficient information hasn’t been provided to address your concerns, then explain this in your response to the LPA. State if you object to the application and why.  Clearly explain any issues you have with the information provided and let the council know if you have any evidence of protected species on the site. Please also submit your wildlife sightings to us so we can update our database via Derbyshire Biological Records Centre | Derbyshire Wildlife Trust

If you are concerned about an imminent or active threat to protected species, , such as breeding birds, badger setts or bat roosts, you should contact the Rural Crime Team. A link to their webpage can be found here: Tell us about a possible wildlife or rural crime | Derbyshire Constabulary. Please note that Derbyshire Wildlife Trust do not have any enforcement powers or rights to enter land, and this would be a matter for the police to deal with.  

If you are concerned about potential impacts to wildlife and habitats as a result of a proposed development, please check the planning pages of the LPA to see if the Trust has submitted a response to the development, as these are available to the public.  You can also see if ecological survey work undertaken by the applicant has picked up on your concern, for example if an ecological survey has recorded a badger sett you are concerned about. 

If you are still concerned, please email the Planning Team with the site name and application reference, if possible, along with the details of your concern. In addition, we would be grateful if you could report any wildlife sightings, to Derbyshire Biological Records Centre (DBRC) through the ORS (online recording system). The data goes straight into Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s database to be verified and our planning team can then access these records when reviewing applications.