New guidance to enhance biological diversity

Buckinghamshire Council is going further in its commitment to preserve and improve Buckinghamshire’s environment.  The Council is working with partners to tackle climate change and its causes; reducing the county’s carbon footprint and delivering environmental net gain.

As part of this commitment, the council has drafted guidance to ensure developers increase biological diversity on their development sites.

Biological diversity, otherwise known as biodiversity is the richness and variety of plant and animal species within habitats, including previously developed land, fields, hedgerows and rivers.

Humans need a diversity of species for food production, climate change adaptation, flood regulation, crop pollination and enhancing human mental and physical well-being.

Using the guidance, developers will need to calculate the biodiversity on the existing site, and design their scheme to ensure there is a greater diversity on the site once completed.

A public consultation on this draft guidance runs from 5pm 19 February until 11:59pm 19 March 2021. 

Responses can be made using the consultation portal, which can be accessed through ‘Your Voice Bucks’, in writing, or by email, before 23:59pm on 19 March 2021.

Cllr Warren Whyte, Buckinghamshire Council Cabinet Member for Planning & Enforcement, commented; “We need a natural world that is complex, resilient, thriving, and full of variety. While Buckinghamshire is growing to accommodate more people, we need to ensure that the natural world can cope with any changes we make. By introducing this guidance on the measurement and improvement of biodiversity on development sites the council demonstrates its commitment to preserve and improve Buckinghamshire’s environment.”