Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Position Statement on Planning for Biodiversity
Introduction
1.
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are designated by the Government
for the purpose of ensuring that the special qualities of the finest landscapes in
England and Wales are conserved and enhanced. In policy terms they have the
same planning status as National Parks.
2.
In the Cotswolds AONB, the planning system has been essential in conserving and
enhancing the special qualities of the landscape.
3.
The Cotswolds Conservation Board is the body set up by Parliament to conserve
and enhance the natural beauty of the Cotswolds AONB and increase the
awareness and understanding of the special qualities of the AONB. It has a duty to
have regard to the social and economic needs of those who live and work in the
Cotswolds.
4.
The Cotswolds AONB Management Plan 2008-131 notes that:
“While the protection and management of important sites and species is an essential task, it
is also important to improve the quality of habitats in the wider landscape. This needs to
involve both enlarging and linking important habitats that are fragmented or isolated,
restoring those which are damaged or degraded, and improving the quality of the
surrounding environment to sustain the wildlife outside of them and to allow natural
movement across the landscape in response to forces like climate change and human
pressures.”
Policy DTP1 of the plan states:
“That all Local Development Framework documents and planning decision-making
processes will use the following criteria to determine the acceptability of a
proposed development in the Cotswolds AONB. Development will: …

5.
protect, or where possible enhance, biodiversity;…”
This position statement provides some background to the biodiversity resource in
the Cotswolds AONB, and provides guidance on the conservation and
enhancement of that resource through the planning system.2
1
Cotswolds AONB Management Plan 2008-13, Cotswolds Conservation Board (2008)
http://www.cotswoldsaonb.com/page.asp?pageID=12
2 More detail regarding other mechanisms for the conservation and enhancement of priority species
and habitats is provided in the National, Regional and County Biodiversity Action Plans.
1
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
Background
6.
The Cotswolds AONB supports a range of habitats and a diverse flora and fauna3.
Many of these habitats are under pressure or declining. Frequently the sites
supporting these habitats are the remnants of wider areas of semi-natural plant
and animal communities and lower intensity agricultural practices. Key habitats
have shown a decline in extent and sometimes in condition, especially since the
1940s. Some of these sites are still under threat from climate change and factors
such as changing farming and land management practice. Sites have also become
more fragmented as this decline has occurred.
7.
There are five European Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) designated under
national and European legislation within the AONB. They are the Cotswold
Beechwoods (beechwood), Rodborough Common (limestone grassland), Bath and
Bradford-on- Avon (bats), Dixton Wood (deadwood insects) and Bredon Hill
(deadwood insects).
8.
There are two categories of national statutory site protection which help to
conserve the best wildlife habitats and geological exposures. In the Cotswolds
AONB these are:
9.

three National Nature Reserves (NNRs) – Cotswold Commons and
Beechwood (near Painswick, Gloucestershire), Bredon Hill (Worcestershire),
and Wychwood Forest (near Witney, Oxfordshire)

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) - 89 in the AONB, including the
NNRs. There are also two Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) in the AONB.
County Wildlife Sites, Key Wildlife Sites, and Sites of Nature Conservation
Importance are identified by county wildlife trusts or the local authorities as having
local significance for biodiversity. Sites are also protected due to being owned by
organisations such as The National Trust, Woodland Trust and the Wildlife Trusts.
10. The locations of these sites are shown on the map at Appendix 2. These sites
represent only the remaining fragments of former much more extensive areas of
natural and semi-natural habitat. These fragments are the most important features
in the AONB for nature conservation and provide the best characterisation of the
Cotswolds wild flora and fauna.
11. Such fragments can be highly vulnerable. They are often small and their quality is
threatened or actually deteriorating through airborne pollution, altered hydrology
and changes in land management both within and around sites. They can also be
isolated from each other by and inhospitable agricultural or urban environment,
which makes them even more susceptible to the effects of climate change.
3
The priority habitats and species in the Cotswolds AONB are attached at Appendix 1.
2
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
12. The sustainability of habitats requires not only the conservation of existing habitat
patches, but also that their expansion and connection across the Cotswolds. There
are a variety of mechanisms other than the planning system through which this
broader approach of habitat buffering, linking and expansion can be achieved.
These include agri-environment schemes, which are outside the scope of this
position statement. (See paragraph 35).
Spatial planning opportunities
13. The planning system has a key role to play in the conservation and enhancement
of biodiversity in the Cotswolds. The local development framework system for local
planning provides an opportunity for the spatial expression of habitat linkages,
whist development control can contribute to the delivery of specific proposals.
14. Planning Policy Statement 12 “Local Spatial Planning” states
“2.6. Spatial planning provides a means of safeguarding the area’s environmental
assets, both for their intrinsic value and for their contribution to social and
economic well being by:
• protection and enhancing designated sites, landscapes, habitats and protected
species; and
• creating a positive framework for environmental enhancement more generally.4”
15. Planning Policy Statement 9 “Biodiversity and Geological Conservation”5 states:
“5. Local development frameworks should:
(i) indicate the location of designated sites of importance for biodiversity and
geodiversity, making clear distinctions between the hierarchy of international,
national, regional and locally designated sites; and
(ii) identify any areas or sites for the restoration or creation of new priority habitats
which contribute to regional targets, and support this restoration or creation
through appropriate policies.”
16. The Board expects local planning authorities to set out in Local Development
Documents clear objectives and policies for landscape scale habitat
restoration and creation in addition to those relating to the protection of
designated sites and species.
17. There are different approaches on how this is to be achieved in each of the three
regions covered by the Cotswolds AONB.
4
Planning Policy Statement 12 DCLG (2008)
Planning Policy Statement 9 DCLG (2005)
http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planning/planningpolicyguidance/historicenviro
nment/pps9/
5
3
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
18. In the South West region, the Wiltshire, Gloucestershire6, Bath and North East
Somerset, and South Gloucestershire authorities are urged to use the South West
Nature Map to
(a) identify areas and sites at the local level that can contribute towards regional
targets for the restoration and creation of priority habitats;
(b) inform the formulation and use of appropriate policies in their LDFs.
19. South West Nature Map is a broad-scale, strategic vision for change which
offers a spatially-based tool for identifying where biodiversity enhancement
should be delivered in the future, using existing areas of wildlife value as a
starting point.
20. The Nature Map identifies at the landscape scale blocks of land, known as
‘Strategic Nature Areas’ (SNAs). SNAs represent the best areas to maintain and
expand wildlife habitats through their management, restoration and/or re-creation.
It is important to note that land outside of the Nature Map areas also contain
wildlife sites and species, much of which is especially valuable in their own right.7
21. SNAs are a practical way of applying a character approach at the landscape scale.
They show the spatial distribution and pattern of priority habitats that are
characteristic of the landscape types of the South West. They demonstrate which
habitat, of regional importance, is most appropriate for restoration and expansion
in any particular local area.
22. Each Strategic Nature Area relates to the restoration and enhancement of just one
priority habitat type, even though there is likely to be a mosaic of other habitats
also present within that area. Within the Cotswolds AONB, further guidance on
the appropriate habitat restoration and creation for each landscape character
type is set out in the Board’s Landscape Strategy and Guidelines.8
23. It should be noted that SNAs present only part of the picture. Sites that are of
importance for biodiversity conservation exist both inside and outside of the SNAs
(and many of these sites will already be protected by international, national,
regional and local designations). LPAs and their partners should therefore also
consider identifying how objectives set for each SNA will relate to and integrate
with wider biodiversity objectives and policies that are applicable outside of SNAs.
This may include planning for the provision or enhancement of green infrastructure
that links features within and outside of SNAs, and thereby improves the overall
network of habitats.
6
A more detailed Nature Map has been prepared for Gloucestershire by the Gloucestershire
Biodiversity Partnership. http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=18196
7
Nature Map was produced by Biodiversity South West and can be viewed and downloaded at:
http://www.swenvo.org.uk/nature_map/nature_map.asp.
This approach complies with PPS 9, paragraph 5
8 http://www.cotswoldsaonb.com/page.asp?pageID=42
4
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
24. In Oxfordshire (South East Region) the same concept as SNAs are described as
Conservation Target Areas (CTAs).9 CTAs represent the main locations in
Oxfordshire which can be viewed as both areas of significant ecological constraint
as well as potential areas of ecological opportunity. In order to conform with PPS9,
Local Development Frameworks in Oxfordshire need to:(i) indicate the location of designated sites of importance for biodiversity and
geodiversity, making clear distinctions between the hierarchy of international,
national, regional and locally designated sites.
(ii) Identify any areas or sites for the restoration of new priority habitats which
contribute to regional targets, and support this restoration through appropriate
policies.
25. The Board considers that in Oxfordshire Core Strategies should include
objectives and policies for the conservation and enhancement of relevant
Conservation Target Areas together with appropriate policies to help
safeguard and enhance the overall biodiversity resource.
26
Similar to the SNA concept, the West Midlands Biodiversity Strategy identified
fourteen Biodiversity Enhancement Areas (BEAs) that were adopted by the
Regional Spatial Strategy. Biodiversity Enhancement Areas contain important
concentrations of biodiversity. For example, they cover 25% of the Region but hold
70% of the Sites of Special Scientific Interest, 86% of the upland and lowland
heathland, and 72% of the unimproved grassland. This makes them ideal places in
which to develop an area based approach for wildlife.
27 To consolidate this area-based approach the West Midlands Biodiversity
Partnership established the Landscapes for Living project. The project has
developed a regional biodiversity map to illustrate potential opportunities for
landscape-scale work across the region, which should include buffering habitats
from adverse impacts, and restoring, re-creating, expanding and linking habitats.
Stage 2 of the Landscapes for Living project, now in the early stages, will result in
biodiversity maps for each of the six West Midlands counties, including
Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
28 There are currently no BEAs defined in the parts of the Cotswolds AONB in
Worcestershire or Warwickshire. However, it is intended that for the regional
biodiversity map produced by Landscapes for Living will replace the BEA maps
within the Regional Spatial Strategy habving taken into account the BEAs. More
significantly, we would anticipate Bredon Hill and the Cotswold edge to be
9
Oxfordshire Conservation Target Areas Mapping Project Report (July 2006)
http://portal.oxfordshire.gov.uk/content/publicnet/council_services/environment_planning/countrysid
e/ecology/OCTA-main-report.pdf
5
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
identified and represented within the county biodiversity maps for Worcestershire
and Warwickshire as important areas of habitat rich landscape.
Core Strategy Local Development Document
27. The Board considers that the most appropriate Local Development
Document (LDD) in which to identify SNAs, CTAs and BEAs is the Core
Strategy, The SNAs are of regional strategic significance and should
therefore influence and form part of the Local Planning Authorities overall
strategic vision and objectives.
The SNAs should be identified spatially, within the Core Strategy, on a Key
Diagram or Illustrative Map.
The SNAs should be supported with a clear objective and/or policy that
states that within these areas, specific action will be taken towards meeting
targets for the maintenance, restoration and recreation of priority habitats
and species, and to the linking of habitats to create more coherent units
which are more resilient to climate change.
Site Specific Allocations
29. In order to meet the objectives and/or policies set out for SNAs in the Core
Strategy (see 24), Site Specific Allocations should ensure that the ‘Key Principles’
from PPS 9 have been applied to site selection and that alternatives have been
fully explored with regard to the location, form, type and scale of development
allocated to each specific site.
30. The Board considers that Site Specific Allocations within SNAs, CTAs and
BEAs should:
(i)
identify how the proposed development might reasonably make a contribution
towards regional biodiversity enhancement targets;
(ii)
ensure that specific allocations do not cause adverse impacts that
compromise the potential of an SNA to achieve regional biodiversity targets
that might be delivered through other mechanisms (e.g. agri-environment or
forestry schemes),
(iii)
ensure that specific allocations do not reduce an SNA’s overall resilience to
climate change; for instance by locating development between two parcels of
priority habitat where it would restrict the migration and dispersal of species
between the two.
Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD)
31. It may be appropriate to supplement site specific allocations with Supplementary
Planning Documents (SPD) that includes guidance on how the LPA expects
6
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
development to take account of the biodiversity objectives and targets set for an
SNA. This guidance might be incorporated into a master plan or design guide SPD,
or it might take the form of specific SPD on biodiversity.
32. Examples of such Supplementary Planning Documents are those adopted by
Wychavon District Council10, and South Gloucestershire Council.11
33. The Board considers that other local planning authorities should examine
the need to produce similar guidance, particularly to provide advice relating
to the submission of planning applications.
Other mechanisms
34. The achievement of regional targets for the conservation and enhancement of
priority habitats found in the SNAs, CTAs or BEAs does not rely solely upon
contributions from new development. Other sectors and delivery mechanisms will
also play a vital role. These will be especially those associated with agriculture and
forestry. In many situations, it is very likely that conservation organisations, rather
than developers, will be key players in the promotion and implementation of action
that leads to biodiversity enhancements.
35. The following is a list of some of the key mechanisms and funding sources that
may be used to achieve biodiversity enhancement targets.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Aggregates Levy Sustainability Funds12
English Woodland Grant Scheme13
Environmental Stewardship14
Heritage Lottery Fund15
NOTES
The Cotswolds Conservation Board has the statutory duty16 to pursue the following two
purposes:
a)
to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the AONB; and
b)
to increase the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the
AONB.
In fulfilling these roles, the Board shall seek to foster the economic and social well-being
of people living in the AONB.
10
Planning and Wildlife SPD (2008) http://wychavon.whub.org.uk/home/wdc-planning-planningnews-wildlife-spd-2008.pdf
11 Biodiversity and the Planning Process (2005) http://wychavon.whub.org.uk/home/wdc-planningplanning-news-wildlife-spd-2008.pdf
12 http://www.sustainableaggregates.com/
13 http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/wgs/default.htm
14 http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es/default.htm
15 http://www.hlf.org.uk/english
16 Section 87. Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
7
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Biodiversity Planning Position Statement
Version 2
The Board is comprised of members appointed by the local authorities, elected parish
council representatives and individuals appointed by the Secretary of State. The Board,
formed in December 2004, is the only organisation that looks after the AONB as a
whole.
The Cotswolds AONB was designated in 1966 and extended in area in 1990. It is one
of 41 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty across England and Wales. It is the largest
AONB, covering 790 sq.miles (2038 sq.km). It is a landscape of equal importance to
National Parks such as Snowdonia and the Lake District.
For further information contact:
Malcolm Watt,
Planning Officer,
Cotswolds Conservation Board
Tel: 01451 862004
Fax: 01451 862001
Email: malcolm.watt@cotswoldsaonb.org.uk.
Website: www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk.
8