Planning and Development

Badgers and their setts are protected by law. Photo: Wikipedia

You may have seen in the latest "Grebe" magazine the results of the survey of members carried out recently. One area that was flagged up as of high importance was involvement in development and planning. Wirral Wildlife has been busy in this "behind the scenes" area for around 40 years, starting in the early days of the local group when Wirral became part of Merseyside instead of Cheshire. We cover geographical Wirral, so also comment on planning in Ellesmere Port, Neston, Willaston and the surrounding areas.

Planning these days splits into two main tasks. Development control is the week-by-week planning applications that impact on the ground. Forward Planning is the drawing up of the Local Plan or Local Development Framework that guides the planning officers in deciding on development control applications. The Forward Planning processes include much public consultation, which is our chance to get the right policies and words in the plan for quoting at Development Control level when we respond to applications.

As a result of our long involvement and evidence-based comments, we are taken seriously by both Wirral and CW&C planning departments. I do the regular responses for Wirral Wildlife, helped by various colleagues within CWT and in sister organisations, especially when it come to consultations.

The amount of support from central CWT has varied over the decades, but we now have a Planning Officer in post (Rachel Giles), who will be working regularly with CW&C so able to take more of that area. Margaret Jackson checks the public weekly lists and notifies Rachel and I of any applications with possible wildlife implications.

Most of our responses involve "comments" asking for particular conditions to protect wildlife, often during the construction phase. Occasionally we have to object outright where something would be seriously damaging to wildlife, or where applicants have failed to do appropriate wildlife surveys so there is insufficient information.

In the last year, in Wirral Borough, I commented on 53 applications, and reviewed another 49 where no comment proved necessary, so this is a busy role. Of the 43 so far determined, we got some improvement for wildlife in 35 cases. Applications range from extensions to houses bordering Sites of Biological Importance (frequently no comment, or standard conditions e.g. to protect badgers) to larger scale work such as new housing at Bromborough and developments along the coast, where precautions are needed against water pollution and disturbance harming the Mersey and Dee Estuaries and adjacent internationally-protected sites.

The part of CW&C that I deal with is much less busy - last year 8 comments, 16 no comments, good result for wildlife in 4 cases. Unfortunately the losses here included the big housing development proposed for Little Sutton, where some mitigation for wildlife was eventually obtained, but not as much as I would have liked.

Consultations recently have included, as well as the developing Local Plans for both boroughs, ones on climate change strategy (Wirral BC), natural character areas (Natural England), river basin strategy (Environment Agency) and even the Maritime Licensing Agency (Meols outfall). I do learn things I never imagined from this side of the work! New things arise at regular intervals - Sustainable Drainage Systems are finally being required, as climate change leads to more intense rainfall and the inevitable consequences. Anyone know anything about hydrology??

I have been doing the planning work for 27 years, and would like to share it with one of two other people, especially the Wirral Borough work. It is a somewhat complex area to get into, though we are developing standard responses for regular issues like badgers, bats and great crested newts.

Anyone who would like to be involved, please contact me!

Hilary Ash

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