Planning law changes and wildlife.

I recently used the CPRE web site to send another letter to my MP on the question of planning changes.
Here is a copy of my letter.

I strongly support the CPRE campaign to minimise the damage to our productive and beautiful countryside, under Government proposals more than half of it would not be adequately protected from development.

Green Belts, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty make up about 40% of the English countryside. I welcome the commitment to retaining special protections for these areas. But here in Somerset we are also concerned about what the Wildlife Trust calls Living Landscapes. I am concerned that the Government’s reforms to the planning system through the National Planning Policy Framework will remove protection for these important areas of the countryside. Currently, countryside is protected for ‘its intrinsic character and beauty’ but its also vital for its role in enabling the production of food, maintaining the quality of the air we breath and the water we drink.

This policy of protecting the quality of the open countryside has been in place for decades and has been supported by successive governments during times of growth and recession. It doesn’t prevent all development but it has helped ensure that ordinary, though valuable, countryside is not unnecessarily lost to speculative development.

For almost 20 years there has also been a requirement that previously developed land – otherwise known as brownfield land - should be developed before green fields. The Government is also proposing to abandon this policy. Yet, a new report commissioned by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Building on a Small Island, demonstrates that the supply of previously developed land is actually increasing, including in high demand areas, and that England has previously developed land suitable for providing 1.5 million new homes. I know that some previously developed sites can be important for wildlife but surely these can be protected without scrapping the brownfield-first policy altogether?

Protecting the countryside and building on previously developed land go hand in hand. Time is running out to persuade the Government to think again. I gather that Ministers are currently considering the final changes to be made to their new planning policies.

Please raise my concerns with the Planning Minister, Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, and urge him to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework makes it absolutely clear that the countryside as a whole needs continued protection, and that building on previously developed sites first should remain an important planning priority.

Yours sincerely

Botany Study Group field work

Somerset Wildlife Trust,   Heart of the Levels Botany Group

Feb field trip 2012.

In its third year the Groups programme of activities for 2012 puts the emphasis on field work.

Our first session was on Feb 7^th. It was a fairly cold but luckily dry day. We met up at 10.30 am and walked to a small private wooded area , where the owner had planted a large variety of trees around 30 years ago.The venue was chosen to give us an opportunity to practice our winter tree identification skills.

There were 15 members present, all well wrapped up against the cold, and led by Anne Bebbington. Most of us have been with the Group since its start up with one or two recent new members.

For this field session we worked using an identification system published by CT Prime and RJ Deacock. We followed their key to identify around 20 different species. They included for example, English Elm, Crack Willow,Horse Chestnut, Cherry and Blackthorn.

As a bonus this last species gave us the chance to search for and find Brown Hairstreak Butterfly eggs.

After about 2 hours field work we had a pleasant lunch at The Angel cafe and community centre in Langport.

This was followed by another fascinating presentation by Anne using Johns very special photography to review much of the greatly magnified detail of the buds, bark and catkins we had found on our walk.

This first field session was a great success.

Our next outing in March will take place on a meadow in Curry Rivel. The aim will be an introduction to survey methods used by Botanist to identify and record the presence of flowers and plants in an organised and measured way. Such records are of fundamental importance in the conservation of the natural environment.

This is of considerable topical interest as the Government introduces Neighbourhood Planning schemes. Surveys of local remaining unspoilt fields and woods will be vital in the formulation of local planning schemes. Every Parish in Somerset needs this work to be undertaken.

DG 9.2.12

New nature website

As a former student with the Open University I receive the OU magazine called Sesame. The autumn edition has an article on a new web site set up by the OU.
The site is designed to enable anyone to get an identification of any form of wildlife which they have seen and wish to find out what it is. I know it works because having registered to use the service I uploaded a photograph of a moth found in my garden. Within a few days I had five people confirming its identity and as they all agreed I think that is pretty certain!
You can find the site by clicking here.