We’re in the middle of our annual Make your Nature Count summer survey of wildlife – there’s still time for you to take part. In January some half a million people took part in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. Gardens are important refuges for wildlife and they are so often the place where that magical first encounter with nature flicks the switch for a lifetime’s interest in the world around us. ‘Mummy, Daddy, come and look at the frog in the pond/ I’ve found a caterpillar/what’s that bird?’
So of course gardens can be worthy of protection – and local authorities already know this. Yesterday’s announcement that gardens will be removed from their current classification of brownfield land seems a sledge-hammerish approach to a localised problem.
The RSPB supports giving priority to the use of brownfield land for development over further ramping up development pressure on undeveloped land. In parallel we advocate the need to ensure that applications are taken on their merits – some brownfield sites are incredibly important for wildlife and it would be utter folly to see them destroyed just because, as a general principle, it is wise to reuse brownfield land for development. One of the best examples of this is Canvey Wick – absolutely a brownfield site and absolutely one of the most important sites for invertebrates in the UK, you can read more about it here.
It’s the same with gardens, of course it’s important to recognise their importance, here we are doing it in the Telegraph. All planning departments treat applications on their merits. Our concern is that sweeping changes at the edges of the planning system will nudge development pressure in predictable but equally unwelcome directions. The planning system is poised on the brink of significant changes (again) and it is worrying that wholesale planning reform seems to be appearing in headline-grabbing policy announcements rather than through a strategic approach. We will be striving to ensure that nature gets the support and protection it needs through the planning system by contributing constructively to the development of the coalition Government’s planning policies.