The Civic Voice Expert Panel has discussed the Planning & Infrastructure Bill with particular reference to concerns about nature protection and recovery and produced a comment paper.
Civic Voice support the concerns of the Office for Environmental Protection and others on the potential for this Bill to undermine current environmental protection measures in the planning system. This is not acceptable.
A spoeksperson said: ‘We feel that most people tacitly support a planning system with strong protection for the environment. New interventions such as BNG and LNRS schemes will help to deliver better outcomes for landscape and nature, although they may need further refinement. We feel that replacing them with another approach for certain developments and locations will lead to planning confusion and delays.’
‘There is potential for the evolution of landscape and nature-led strategies at a district and sub-regional level that could allow for the integration of major urban expansion and infrastructure projects whilst providing for nature recovery. This could be an important facet of the ‘Spatial Development Strategies’ proposed by the Bill.’
‘As civic champions, we believe that democratic inclusion of local communities must be central to such planning processes. We believe this would be best delivered by well-resourced local planning authorities. We are doubtful that Natural England, by themselves, would be the best organisation to lead a transparent and democratic planning process even if they were furnished with the resources to take on this role.’
‘Civic Voice conclude that nature-led strategic planning will require long-term policy commitment and appropriate resource investment. Nevertheless, with these provisions we believe this approach could have significant economic, social, and environmental benefits.’
Read the full paper here as a pdf.