The Wash and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan Jon Watson A cross boundary evidence base for the protection and enhancement of wildlife and public access networks and linkages in the towns and countryside surrounding The Wash PRODUCED BY THE WASH ESTUARY PROJECT AUTHORED BY NICK DUNNETT EDITED BY VIVIEN HARTWELL “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks” John Muir Little egrets coming into roost - Steve Keightley Acknowledgements Many thanks go to Vivien Hartwell, with her help in the production of this document. I would also like to thank all those people and organisations that have helped in the provision of the raw data and photos used in the production of this report and those that have given support and guidance along the way. Best Regards Nick Dunnett © Wash Estuary Project (2011) Page 2 The Wash Estuary Project would like to the thank the following for their support in the production of this Plan Funding Partners Boston Borough Council www.boston.gov.uk www.west-norfolk.gov.uk Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk East Lindsey District Council www.e-lindsey.gov.uk Environment Agency www.environment-agency.gov.uk www.lincolnshire.gov.uk Lincolnshire County Council Natural England www.naturalengland.org.uk Norfolk County Council www.norfolk.gov.uk South Holland District Council www.sholland.gov.uk Suppliers of information and raw data (including members of the public and the funders listed above). A list of the information supplied by these organisations can be found in Appendix 3. Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board www.blacksluiceidb.gov.uk Boston Woods Trust http://community.lincolnshire.gov.uk/ thebostonwoodstrust Cambridgeshire County Council www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk English Heritage www.english-heritage.org.uk Fenland District Council www.fenland.gov.uk Forestry Commission www.forestry.gov.uk King's Lynn Internal Drainage Board www.wlma.org.uk Lincolnshire Biodiversity Partnership www.lincsbiodiversity.org.uk/ Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust www.lincstrust.org.uk Lindsey Marsh Drainage Board www.lmdb.co.uk Middle Level Commissioners www.middlelevel.gov.uk Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership www.norfolkbiodiversity.org North Levels Internal Drainage Board www.northlevelidb.org Norfolk Rivers Internal Drainage Board www.wlma.org.uk Norfolk Wildlife Trust www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk Royal Society for the Protection of Birds www.rspb.org.uk South Holland Internal Drainage Board www.wlma.org.uk Sustrans www.sustrans.org.uk Welland and Deeping Internal Drainage Board www.wellandidb.org.uk/ Witham Fourth Internal Drainage Board www.w4idb.co.uk Woodland Trust www.woodlandtrust.org.uk Page 3 Contents Page Section 1 Introduction 6-9 1.1 Description of Green Infrastructure 6 1.2 An Introduction of Green Infrastructure Planning 7-9 Section 2 The Wash and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan 10-13 2.1 Introduction to The Wash and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan 10 2.2 How to use The Wash and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan 11 2.3 The Wash and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan Boundary 12 Presence of Green Infrastructure in The Wash and Fens Plan - 2.4 Maps 13 Maps 1-6 Section 3 Accessible Green Infrastructure 14-21 An Introduction to Accessible Green Infrastructure in The Wash 3.1 14-15 and Fens Plan Accessible Green Infrastructure Maps 3.2 16-17 Maps 7-36 The Role of Green Infrastructure in Public Rights of Way 3.3 18-21 Improvement Plans Section 4 Biodiversity Green Infrastructure 22-32 4.1 Description of Biodiversity 22 4.2 Biodiversity Action Plans and the Role of Green Infrastructure 22-24 4.3 Biodiversity Green Infrastructure in The Wash and Fens Plan 25 Biodiversity Green Infrastructure Maps 4.4 26 Maps 37-48 4.5 Identifying Potential Wildlife Habitat Networks Methodology 27-29 Potential Habitat Network Maps 4.6 30-31 Maps 49-86 4.7 Land Drainage and Green Infrastructure 32 Section 5 Functional Green Infrastructure 33-40 5.1 A Description of Functional Green Infrastructure 33 5.2 Green Infrastructure and the Historic Environment 34-36 Maps for the Historic Environment 5.3 37 Maps 87-92 Page 4 Contents Page 5.4 Farming and Green Infrastructure 38-39 Farming Maps 5.5 40 Maps 93-98 Section 6 Community Consultation 41-60 Community Consultation for The Wash and Fens Green 6.1 41-59 Infrastructure Plan Community Consultation Suggestions for Improvements - Maps 6.2 60 Maps 99-104 Strategic Planning and The Wash and Fens Green Section 7 61-75 Infrastructure Plan Strategic Planning and The Wash and Fens Green 7.1 61-66 Infrastructure Plan The Green Infrastructure and Local Development Framework 7.2 67-75 Toolkit Section 8 Green Infrastructure and the Health Agenda 76-78 Section 9 Education and Green Infrastructure 79-80 Section 10 Implementation 81-83 Section 11 Future Survey Work 84-86 Abbreviations 87-88 Appendix 1 Interactive Maps at the Lincolnshire Research Observatory 89-90 Appendix 2 Rights of Way Improvement Plan Supporting Policies 92-98 Raw Data of Green Infrastructure Features used for The Wash Appendix 3 99-100 and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan Community Consultation Maps and Comments Appendix 4 101 Maps 105-110 Appendix 5 Action Points Summary 102-106 Page 5 Section 1- Introduction 1.1 DESCRIPTION OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE Numerous descriptions and definitions of green infrastructure have been written in many plans and strategies across the country and the world. The simple definition used throughout the development of the Wash and Fens Green Infrastructure Plan is: Green infrastructure provides open space for our recreation and health, whether it’s a walk, a cycle, a kick about in the park or a chance to go bird watching. It provides habitat for wild animals and plants and the capacity for them to move and spread. Green Infrastructure can act to buffer the effects of mankind upon the natural environment of which we are all a part. It can also act to buffer mankind from the changing environment. Green infrastructure may be wild habitats and major reserves for wildlife through to ornamental and recreational parks with much in between. It includes the trees, hedges, footpaths, tracks, rivers, banks, ditches, fields and field margins that connect them. It is often small areas of green infrastructure and green space that are first to disappear as land is developed or improved. If they are replaced, it has often been as an afterthought. The development and implementation of joined up and interconnected forward planning can strengthen our environment for the benefit of all. Cliff Foster Page 6 Section 1- Introduction 1.2 AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING Green infrastructure planning proposes that development in our landscape and communities takes place around the valuable features that already exist and adds to them. This gives green space an equal footing with housing, shops, industry, roads and other community based infrastructure. Green infrastructure planning is a way of working, between authorities, landowners, communities and the environment. Natural England’s definition for green infrastructure planning is being used as their national guidance. Their definition is as follows: “Green Infrastructure is a strategically planned and delivered network comprising the broadest range of high quality green spaces and other environmental features. It should be designed and managed as a multifunctional resource capable of delivering those ecological services and quality of life benefits required by the communities it serves and needed to underpin sustainability. Its design and management should also respect and enhance the character and distinctiveness of an area with regard to habitats and landscape types. Green Infrastructure includes established green spaces and new sites and should thread through and surround the built environment and connect the urban area to its wider rural hinterland. Consequently it needs to be delivered at all spatial scales from sub-regional to local neighbourhood levels, accommodating both accessible natural green spaces within local communities and often much larger sites in the urban fringe and wider countryside1.” Green infrastructure is especially relevant to the housing and economic growth agenda (particularly Growth Areas and Growth Points) and to the regeneration of urban areas. It is about development going hand-in-hand with the protection and enhancement of existing environmental assets and the creation of new ones. Green infrastructure planning puts the environment right at the centre of the planning process and produces a strategic and linked, multi-functional network of spaces with benefits for people and wildlife. Green infrastructure is also about underpinning the sustainability of a town or city, including making it resilient to the effects of climate change and enabling local authorities to meet their duty to conserve biodiversity under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (NERC) 2006. In addition to relating to urban areas, green infrastructure relates to the rural environment. In the wider countryside, green infrastructure is often viewed at a larger scale, encompassing large country or regional parks; extensive habitats, major landscape features such as river corridors and flood meadows, and the identification of wide green corridors and ecological networks. Green infrastructure at this scale can provide the wider framework and context for planning green infrastructure at a more local level. East Midlands Green Infrastructure Network (EMGIN) (www.emgin.co.uk) have produced the Green Infrastructure Guide for the East Midlands (2008).