Build your case
Respond to a planning application - Building your case for wildlife
Responding to planning application will be most effective when it explains what wildlife could be affected, how the proposed development could cause harm and what you would like to change.
You do not need to be a planning expert. Clear observations and relevant evidence can help the planning authority understand concerns that might otherwise be missed.
Emilie Dicks
Understanding how harm should be addressed?
Development should first seek to avoid harm - for example, by retaining an important habitat or changing the layout.
Where harm cannot be avoided, measures should reduce its effects. Restoration may also be needed. Compensation for remaining harm should be a last resort.
Look for clear, workable proposals rather than general promises to “support wildlife”.
Record what you know
For each wildlife observation, record:
- What you saw, including the species if known.
- The location.
- The date and, where relevant, time.
- How often you have observed it.
- Any photographs or other supporting records.
Be clear about what is confirmed and what is uncertain. If you cannot identify a species, describe what you saw.
Only observe from places you can lawfully access and avoid disturbing wildlife. Before submitting sensitive information, such as the precise location of a vulnerable species, ask the authority how it should be supplied and whether it would be published.
Wild flower planting in urban setting by Paul Hobson
Explain the link to the development
Help the reader understand the connection between your evidence and the proposal.
For example:
- Would a hedgerow used by wildlife be removed?
- Could new lighting affect a dark route between habitats?
- Could drainage changes affect a pond, stream or wetland?
- Would a new road separate habitats that are currently connected?
Refer to the relevant drawing, report section or photograph wherever possible.
Photo, David Tipling/2020Vision
Focus on matters planners can consider
Planning decisions consider issues relevant to the development and use of land. These are known as material planning considerations.
Wildlife, habitats, trees, water quality and effects on designated sites can be relevant. Your response should explain how the particular proposal affects them.
Private disputes, the applicant’s motives, loss of property value or loss of a private view are not normally planning grounds for objection.
Find the relevant policies
Start with the authority’s adopted Local Plan and any applicable neighbourhood plan. Search for policies covering biodiversity, trees, hedgerows, waterways, green infrastructure or the particular site.
Quote the policy name or number and explain how it relates to your concern. You do not need to reproduce the whole policy.
National policy also matters. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the government’s planning policies for England.
What if the site is allocated for development?
An allocation in an adopted Local Plan provides strong support for the type of development identified. However, the details and impacts of an application still need to be assessed.
Check whether the proposal meets the allocation’s requirements, including any safeguards for wildlife. Focus your comments on the matters being decided at this stage.
What makes a concern persuasive?
The authority must judge the importance—or “weight”—of the different issues involved.
There is no fixed score for a wildlife concern. Explain the ecological importance of what could be affected, the likely harm and the evidence supporting your view.
You do not have to prove that a legal offence would occur to raise a planning concern.
©Jon Hawkins Surrey Hills Photographer
Be clear about what you want
Depending on the issue, you might ask the authority to:
- Obtain necessary ecological information before deciding the application.
- Require changes to retain habitats or reduce disturbance.
- Secure appropriate protection, management and monitoring.
- Refuse permission where unacceptable harm cannot be addressed.
Further help
Here you will find further information that will help you to build your case for wildlife
How important is the Local Plan?
The Local Plan is very important because it forms part of the development plan for the area. Planning applications must generally be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material planning considerations indicate otherwise.
The following points explain how the Local Plan and its policies influence planning decisions:
- Proposals that accord with an up-to-date development plan and the national decision-making policies in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) should be approved without delay.
- Proposals that conflict with the development plan should not normally be granted planning permission, although other material considerations, including national planning policy, may justify a different decision.
- A Local Plan does not automatically become wholly ‘out of date’ if the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. However, a lack of housing supply may indicate an unmet need and affect how applications for housing are considered, particularly outside settlements (i.e. planning permission may be granted for sites that lie outside of Local Plan allocations).
- Some development plan policies may be given very limited weight if they are materially inconsistent with current national decision-making policies. Other policies should not be given less weight simply because they were adopted before the latest NPPF.
- Where a new Local Plan is being prepared, its emerging policies may be given weight according to:
- how far the plan has progressed.
- the extent of unresolved objections.
- how closely its policies comply with the NPPF.
Anyone commenting on a planning application should therefore refer to the relevant Local Plan policies, as well as any applicable neighbourhood plan and national planning policies.
What are mitigation & compensation measures?
Mitigation measures are actions taken to reduce or minimise harm to biodiversity. They should be incorporated into the layout, design and construction of a development from the outset.
Compensation measures are used only as a last resort, where harm cannot be avoided or adequately mitigated. They seek to offset the remaining harm and may be provided on or off the development site.
Development should follow the mitigation hierarchy:
- Avoiding harm to wildlife in the first instance.
- Reducing impacts where they cannot be avoided.
- Restoring habitats and species affected by development.
- Providing compensation for any remaining impacts only as a last resort.
Where significant harm to biodiversity cannot be avoided, adequately mitigated or, as a last resort, compensated for, planning permission should be refused.
Biodiversity net gain is additional to the mitigation hierarchy. Addressing harm caused by development does not, by itself, amount to delivering a net gain. Subject to exemptions, development must still achieve the required biodiversity net gain after avoidance, mitigation, restoration and compensation measures have been taken into account.
What about biodiversity net gain?
Biodiversity net gain aims to leave habitats in a measurably better state after development. Development covered by the statutory requirement must achieve at least 10% net gain, although exemptions apply.
Devon Wildlife Trust advocates a minimum of 20%. This is our policy position, rather than a requirement that applies to every application.
A claimed net gain does not remove the need to assess harm to existing habitats, protected sites or species.
Use the government’s biodiversity net gain guidance to check the current requirements.
A key distinction: the NPPF establishes a general policy expectation to provide biodiversity gains, whereas statutory BNG sets a measurable legal requirement of at least 10% net gain for development that falls within its scope. This means that development exempt from statutory BNG may still be expected to deliver proportionate biodiversity enhancements under national or local planning policy.
What is ‘significant harm’?
‘Significant harm’ is harm that would have an important adverse effect on biodiversity. Whether harm is significant will depend on factors such as the ecological importance and sensitivity of the habitat or species affected, the scale and duration of the impact and whether the effects can be reversed. Significance may be considered at a local, county, national or international level.
The applicant’s ecological consultant will normally assess the likely impacts and recommend measures to avoid, mitigate or compensate for harm. However, the local planning authority must consider the evidence and decide whether the likely harm is acceptable in planning terms.
Where significant harm to biodiversity cannot be avoided, adequately mitigated or, as a last resort, compensated for, national planning policy states that planning permission should be refused.
