‘Without enforcement, Bristol’s nature will be exported bit-by-bit’

Bristol Tree Forum believe that Bristol urgently needs to follow the lead of other councils and adopt a Biodiversity Net Gain Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

This would support and reinforce the laudable aim set out in the new Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) obligations, which is for developers to enhance the biodiversity of their development site by at least ten per cent.

All councils are encouraged to develop a locally specific SPD as part of their Local Plan. This would:

• Set out local priorities and strategies that require developers to deliver BNG locally
• Ensure that BNG contributes to wider nature recovery plans such as the newly launched Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)
• Link BNG requirements to other policies in the Local Plan, to ensure a more holistic approach
• Set requirements for managing and maintaining habitats arising from development

Having such a document would clarify exactly what developers need to do in terms of the BNG requirements. While these requirements have many gaps, we believe that developing a robust BNG SPD could help mitigate these problems by adding tougher conditions that developers must meet.

With the launch of the LNRS, it’s vital that Bristol City Council brings this strategy into action, especially where new development is planned.

Two factors causing us concern (there are others) are the exclusion of stakeholders from the BNG decision process and the lack of enforcement of BNG requirements.

Consulting stakeholders

It’s disappointing that the new BNG regime excludes stakeholder groups such as ours from engaging with and commenting on the approval process for Biodiversity Gain Plans (BGPs) because of the way the planning rules work.

Under these rules, BGPs only need to be submitted for approval to the Planning Authority after an application has been approved. There’s no statutory requirement to publicise or consult on the submission of a BGP prior to its approval.

It seems, therefore, that we (and other stakeholders fighting for everyday nature) will have no say in what’s proposed, or even have any idea of what a BGP contains or how it could affect us.

Surely this goes against the principles of open governance and localism which councillors should be fighting to defend?

Improving enforcement

There are serious failings around BNG enforcement that need to be resolved. We’ve been trying to engage with council officers over this issue for some time, so far without success.

Maybe the time has come for the council to seize the initiative? With the proposed new Local Plan moving towards its public hearings stage early next year and the likelihood that the plan will be adopted next April, maybe now is the time for the reconstituted Local Plan Working Group to take this in hand.

The current BNG requirement from the council is, at best, only advisory, unlike an SPD which would be part of the Local Plan and so compel a developer’s compliance.

Some planning conditions, such as this one from the recent, pre-February 12 2024, Bristol Rovers Memorial Grounds application are currently unenforceable. In this case they only oblige the club to submit a proposed Landscape Ecological Management Plan (LEMP), but the club is not obliged to perfect this or even to carry it out.

Given the intense competition for space in the city, it seems inevitable that, as a result of the application of the Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy, Bristol’s nature will, bit by bit, be exported to some far-off field that no one knows or cares about.

In theory, a BNG SPD could at least try to ensure that habitats lost to development are replaced locally wherever possible.

How to deliver an SPD

It’s been suggested that new SPDs can’t be delivered until after the new Local Plan has been examined and formally adopted. Maybe, but we see no reason why we can’t at least start a conversation about this.

It’s also been suggested that there are neither the funds nor enough officer time available to develop this new SPD. However, since many other councils have developed their own SPDs, we can surely save time and expense by looking on these as templates from which to build our own.

The examples above alone make it all the more urgent for issues such as this to be resolved with the early adoption of a BNG SPD. We urge the council to commission officers to draft an SPD as a matter of urgency.

This is an opinion piece by Mark Ashdown. He is the chair of Bristol Tree Forum, a voluntary organisation dedicated to protecting and increasing the tree canopy cover of Bristol’s urban forest. For more information visit bristoltreeforum.org/about-btf/ 

Main image: Mark Ashdown

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