As a land owner, regulatory body and leadership organisation in the wider community, the Council has a range of responsibilities aimed at protecting and enhancing biodiversity. The council also has an obligation to consider impacts on the ecology of Blaenau Gwent in carry out their functions, which includes making planning decisions. Whether it’s a large development or a small householder application, the potential to affect ecological features needs to be considered. Ensuring the principles of the Step Wise approach of avoidance, mitigation, compensation, net biodiversity benefit measures are incorporated into schemes. Developments also need to address the attributes of the DECCA framework to be able to secure net biodiversity benefits and ecosystem resilience.
What information is needed?
If there is potential for a proposed development to affect an ecological feature, such as protected species, priority habitats and designated sites; ecological assessments and surveys may be required to support the application. This ensures there is sufficient information for officers to make informed decisions.
General guidance regarding ecology surveys for householders applications can be found on The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) website.
Any planning queries should be directed through the planning department:
Biodiversity Net Benefits and Ecosystem Resilience
All approved planning applications must result in maximum Net Benefit for Biodiversity; this requires developments to follow the Step Wise Approach and addressing the attributes of the DECCA Framework and importantly provide biodiversity enhancements at each stage of the approach that result in a biodiversity net gain and builds in ecosystem resilience as far as this is reasonably practical.
This approach to securing net biodiversity benefits actively encourages consideration of biodiversity and wider ecosystem benefits on a site-by-site basis; It does not use the biodiversity metric approach. Therefore, the Step Wise Approach has the ability to provide different biodiversity enhancement measures that are appropriate to the development. If consultant ecologists have been engaged, they should provide recommendations based on the site survey data. However, not all applications require input from a consultant ecologist, and to help you deliver net biodiversity benefits we have produced (the below leaflet) to provide suggestions.
If you require the services of an Ecological Consultant please find below a list of contacts. Contact details for consultants can be obtained from a number of sources including published bodies and published directories. This is not a definitive list and does not imply any recommendations by BGCBC.
Contact Information
Natural Environment
Email Address: Nadine.morgan@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk