Green Infrastructure & Ecological Networks Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) Green Infrastructure & Ecological Networks SPD December 2015 Regeneration Department Town Hall Blackburn BB1 7DY www.blackburn.gov.uk Table of Contents Introduction 4 Planning policy and legislation 7 Green infrastructure planning and delivery guidance 10 Design considerations 14 Biodiversity and ecological networks 20 Integrating green infrastructure in new residential development 28 Ecological networks and development 31 Ecological impact assessment, mitigation and compensation 32 Planning application process 34 Useful documents and links 35 Appendix A: Provision for biodiversity in new development 37 Appendix B: Designated biodiversity sites 46 Appendix C: Calculating the commuted sum payment in new residential development 75 Appendix D: Consultation Statement 76 Appendix E: Consolidated Screening Statement on the determination of the need for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) 85 Appendix F: Summary of consultation responses on the draft SPD and the Sustainability Appraisal 90 3 1. Introduction 1.1 Blackburn with Darwen’s Core Strategy and Local Plan Part 2: Site Allocations and Development Management Policies sets out the Council’s policies on protecting, improving and creating green infrastructure and ecological networks through the development process. The purpose of this Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is to provide further detail and guidance to developers, householders and planners on how the Council expects to see these policies working in practice. 1.2 The overall aim of this SPD is to help applicants and developers ensure that proposals for development make the most of opportunities to improve existing and create new green infrastructure and ecological networks. The guidance contained within this document will be used by the Council’s Planning Implementation Group as one of a number of considerations in the determination of applications for development. 1.3 The SPD provides advice and guidance on: Green infrastructure and ecological networks in Blackburn with Darwen; The national and local policy context; Embedding high quality, sustainable and multifunctional green infrastructure, and/or the retention, restoration, enhancement and/or creation of ecological networks into the ‘place-making’ process at a site level to add value to development – including key design and management considerations; The legislation protecting plants, animals, birds and their habitats; The biodiversity information required when making a planning application; Integration of biodiversity into buildings and their surroundings to improve existing habitats and create new habitats; The role of ecological networks (including ecological network maps); Connecting new green infrastructure with existing networks; Connecting new and established ecological networks; and Requirements for integrating green infrastructure in new residential developments, including commuted sum calculations. Green infrastructure 1.4 Green infrastructure is the term used to describe the totality of green spaces and areas of water in both urban and rural areas. It incorporates cultural assets and landscape as well as ecological/habitat assets. 1.5 Natural England defines Green Infrastructure as: “…a strategically planned and delivered network of high quality green spaces and other environmental features. It should be designed and managed as a multifunctional resource capable of delivering a wide range of environmental and quality of life benefits for local communities. Green Infrastructure includes parks, open spaces, playing fields, woodlands, allotments and private gardens.” 1.6 As highlighted above, green infrastructure assets may perform multiple functions including: Setting the scene for growth, creating a good quality of place and quality of life and supporting sustainable economic growth; Supporting physical and mental health and well-being; Providing for recreation, leisure and tourism; Supporting the rural economy; Helping to manage flood risk; 4 Supporting mitigation and adaptation to climate change; Positively benefitting the historic environment; and Enhancing the ecological network and promoting biodiversity. 1.7 For example, street trees add aesthetic quality to the urban area but will also reduce airborne pollution, provide shade, reduce urban heat island effects, mitigate wind chill and turbulence and increase biodiversity. Well planned green infrastructure can also help to protect and enhance the setting of the borough’s heritage assets. The surrounding moorland habitats also sequester carbon, helping to combat climate change. 1.8 Networks of continuous green infrastructure within towns and connecting with the open countryside have greater benefit for people and wildlife than isolated pockets of open space. For example, linked spaces offer opportunities for off-road walking and cycling routes that encourage sustainable travel, which in turn benefits the health of users; movement of wildlife is facilitated where spaces are connected; and natural systems, such as flood attenuation, operate more effectively along linked spaces. As a whole, networks of green space generate a sense of place and local distinctiveness and create the conditions for growth and investment. 1.9 Blackburn with Darwen’s green infrastructure comprises a range of assets including: The West Pennine Moors; Water courses, especially the Rivers Darwen and Blakewater and their tributaries; Leeds and Liverpool canal; Reservoirs and other open water bodies; Agricultural land; Parks and gardens; Woodland and street trees; Village greens; Allotments and community gardens; Cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds; Playing fields and recreation grounds, including school grounds and golf courses; Private gardens; Incidental open spaces and landscaping; Roadside & motorway verges; Derelict land; Ecological networks of wildlife sites and habitats; Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Local Nature Reserves, Biological Heritage Sites, Local Geodiversity sites. 1.10 It is the Council’s objective to improve connectivity in the urban areas, as well as addressing deficiencies of open space identified in the Council’s Open Space Assessment. Contiguous spaces enhance the multi-functionality of green infrastructure, facilitate active travel on foot or bicycle and assist the movement of wildlife. Green infrastructure therefore needs to be integral to the design of development, reflecting and enhancing an area’s character, and contributing to the development and extension of the network’s physical and functional connectivity. 1.11 As Blackburn with Darwen continues to grow and develop, population growth, planned new housing, employment and ‘grey’ infrastructure requirements will all put pressure on existing green infrastructure and will require new provision to ensure that all residents and visitors have access to green infrastructure of all types to sustain and improve health and well-being and quality of life. 5 Ecological networks 1.12 An ecological network is a collection of suitable habitat patches connected by movement corridors through the intervening habitat matrix. 1.13 The development of an ecological network as a conservation strategy is intended to maintain the function of the ecosystem in order to support the conservation of species and habitats whilst also promoting land management strategies that limit the impacts of human activities on biodiversity. 1.14 The ‘Making Space for Nature’ (2010) report was an independent national review of England’s wildlife sites and the connections between them. It concluded that the conservation objectives behind the identification of sites cannot be successfully achieved if sites remain, or become, further fragmented and isolated from each other. Particularly when considered in the light of the need for species to be able to respond to potential environmental changes arising from climate change. 1.15 It recommended that ecological connections which exist between high quality sites are maintained, and developed, to allow species populations, or at least their genes, to move between them to establish a coherent and resilient network. 1.16 The priorities for action to enhance the resilience and coherence of ecological networks are summarised by the mantra: better, bigger, more and joined. To achieve this, ’Making Space for Nature’ recommends: 1. Improving the quality of current sites by better habitat management. 2. Increasing the size of current wildlife sites. 3. Enhancing connections between, or join up, sites, either through physical corridors, or through ‘stepping stones’. 4. Creating new sites. 5. Reducing the pressures on wildlife by improving the wider environment, including through buffering wildlife sites. 6 2. Planning policy and legislation 2.1 This section provides an overview of current planning policy and legislation relating to green infrastructure and ecological networks. Current policy recognises that the provision of green infrastructure is not just an environmental matter; there are wide ranging benefits for the economy and society as well. Green infrastructure should be seen as an integral part of planning from the earliest stages in the design process, as with other types of infrastructure. National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) 2.2 With reference to green infrastructure and ecological networks, the NPPF makes clear that local planning authorities should set out a strategic approach in their Local Plans,