• Planning guidance: Wales
• Wildlife law and policy
  • International Conventions and Directives
  • European Community Directives
  • National Law and Regulations
  • Planning Legislation
  • Animal Welfare Legislation
• Recent developments: legislation & policy
  • Current progress: England
  • The TEEB Report
  • Legislation: planning
  • Environmental liabilities: Wales
  • Environmental liabilities: England
  • European Protected Species Licences: England
  • Habitat Regulations
  • Wildlife and Countryside Act
  • Marine and Coastal Access Act
  • Biodiversity Duty under NERC
• Planning guidance: England
• Planning guidance: Wales
• Case law
  • Morge case
  • Woolley ruling
  • Dilly Lane
  • Cornwall ruling
• Regional & local planning policy
• Biodiversity enhancement
• Protected sites and development
• Protected species and development
• Licensing
• Biodiversity action plans
• Ecological surveys
  • Habitat survey
  • Species surveys
• Mitigation and enhancement

Planning guidance: Wales

With the raft of new planning policy and guidance relating to biodiversity that has appeared in the last few years, it is clear that the UK Government is very serious about biodiversity issues.  Therefore, the importance of considering biodiversity on development sites at an early stage should not be underestimated.

The following guidance is covered:

Planning Policy Wales (4th Ed. February 2011)
Technical Advice Note 5 (TAN5)
Recent Developments in Policy
PAS 2010:2006

Planning Policy Wales (4th Ed. February 2011)

Planning Policy Wales sets out the approach to be taken through the land use planning system in Wales.  It provides the policy framework for the preparation of local development plans intended to contribute towards ‘sound economic development, the conservation of natural assets and to the quality of life of individuals and communities’.

Chapter 5, Conserving and Improving the Natural Heritage and Coast, sets out the Welsh Assembly Government’s objectives for the natural heritage and the land-use planning policies that support them (Chapter 5 remains the same in Ed. 4 as it was in Ed. 3).  Importantly it states that ‘Local planning authorities must address biodiversity issues, insofar as they relate to land-use planning, in both development plans and development control decisions.’

PPW 2011 requires that local development plans must establish a policy framework for the conservation and enhancement of the natural heritage specific to the local area, and include policies for coastal areas where relevant.  It is important, therefore, to align development proposals not only to national policy, but to local planning policies contained within the relevant local development plan (LDP).]

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Technical Advice Note 5 (TAN5)

Technical Advice Note 5 (TAN5) provides advice about how the land use planning system should contribute to protecting and enhancing biodiversity and geological conservation.  In essence it sets out the manner in which planning authorities should comply with their duty under NERC 2006.  It is intended to be used in parallel with Planning Policy Wales (2011) (PPW).

TAN5: Key Principles of Positive Planning for Nature Conservation

The town and country planning system in Wales should:

• work to achieve nature conservation objectives through a partnership between local planning authorities, CCW, the Environment Agency Wales, voluntary organisations, developers, landowners and other key stakeholders;
• integrate nature conservation into all planning decisions looking for development to deliver social, economic and environmental objectives together over time;
• ensure that the UK’s international and national obligations for site, species and habitat protection are fully met in all planning decisions;
• look for development to provide a net benefit for biodiversity conservation with no significant loss of habitats or populations of species, locally or nationally;
• help to ensure that development does not damage, or restrict access to, or the study of, geological sites and features or impede the evolution of natural processes and systems especially on rivers and the coast;
• forge and strengthen links between the town and country planning system and biodiversity action planning particularly through policies in local development plans and the preparation of supplementary planning guidance that adds value to Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAPs) by highlighting the ways in which the planning system can help to deliver the objectives of LBAPs in practical ways;
• plan to accommodate and reduce the effects of climate change by encouraging development that will reduce damaging emissions and energy consumption and that help habitats and species to respond to climate change.

TAN5 sets out how:

‘When considering policies and proposals in local development plans and when deciding planning applications that may affect nature conservation, local planning authorities should:

• pay particular attention to the principles of sustainable development, including respect for environmental limits, applying the precautionary principle, using scientific knowledge to aid decision making and taking account of the full range of costs and benefits in a long term perspective;
• contribute to the protection and improvement of the environment, so as to improve the quality of life and protect local and global ecosystems, seeking to avoid irreversible harmful effects on the natural environment;
• promote the conservation and enhancement of statutorily designated areas and undeveloped coast;ensure that appropriate weight is attached to designated sites of international, national and local importance;
• protect wildlife and natural features in the wider environment, with appropriate weight attached to priority habitats and species in Biodiversity Action Plans;
• ensure that all material considerations are taken into account and decisions are informed by adequate information about the potential effects of development on nature conservation;
• ensure that the range and population of protected species is sustained;
• adopt a step-wise approach to avoid harm to nature conservation, minimise unavoidable harm by mitigation measures, offset residual harm by compensation measures and look for new opportunities to enhance nature conservation; where there may be significant harmful effects local planning authorities will need to be satisfied that any reasonable alternative sites that would result in less or no harm have been fully considered.’

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The Natural Environment Framework: ‘A Living Wales’

The Natural Environment Framework (NEF) is intended to bring together management of the environment in Wales as a whole, rather than focusing on separate parts.  The Welsh Assembly Government intends that ‘A Living Wales’ identifies key steps that will help to transfer the principles of the framework into tangible action on the ground.  These include:

• Developing a stronger evidence base for our ecosystems so that we have a better basis for decision making;
• Ensuring that our dependence on the natural environment and the value of ecosystems and their services is fully reflected in our decision making processes;
• Refreshing our management and regulatory approaches;
• Ensuring we have the best partnership arrangements to make the new framework a success;
• Reviewing the current roles, functions and organisation of our key delivery agencies, namely the Environment Agency Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission Wales, in order to ensure that they support an integrated and sustainable approach.

Further progress is anticipated later in 2011.

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PAS 2010:2006

The Publicly Available Specification (PAS 2010:2006), entitled ‘Planning to halt the loss of biodiversity’, was produced by BSI British Standards to set out how local planning authorities should meet their obligation to have regard for the conservation of biodiversity (under the NERC Act 2006).

The PAS was intended to aid authorities contributions towards the UK Government’s commitment to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010.  Although this deadline has now passed it remains useful guidance on how biodiversity should be treated in planning applications.  Key points for developers are that:

• Biodiversity is a material consideration for all types of planning application;
• The pre-application stage should be used to determine the information on biodiversity that should be submitted with the planning application;
• Any biodiversity surveys and measures designed to avoid, mitigate or compensate for potential adverse effects, along with proposals for enhancement, should be included in the planning application; and
• The planning authority should refuse planning permission when the applicant cannot or will not provide information on biodiversity, if significant adverse effects are possible and the benefits of the development do not clearly outweigh the harm.

With the raft of new planning policy and guidance relating to biodiversity that has appeared in the last few years, it is clear that the UK Government is very serious about biodiversity issues.  Therefore, the importance of considering biodiversity on development sites at an early stage should not be underestimated.

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