SLP KDBH Extracts - Flipbook - Page 100
enhancement are highlighted in the Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull Green Infrastructure
Strategy and Solihull’s Natural Capital Investment Plan. Developers will be expected to make
use of this information in seeking to protect and enhance biodiversity through development.
328.
The Council recognises and will promote the need for and benefits of joint working with a
range of sectors, including public sector bodies, farming and agriculture, voluntary groups,
wildlife charities, Neighbourhood Areas and private landowners to achieve landscape scale
conservation and enhance the strategic green and blue infrastructure network. The Council
is a partner in the Kingfisher Country Park project, with Birmingham and environmental
agencies and groups, to protect and restore the landscape of the River Cole and Kingshurst
Brook and their surrounds in North Solihull. The Council supports the work of the Local
Nature Partnership for Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, such as the West Arden Living
Landscape project, Tame Valley and River Cole NIA, and the Cole Valley Vision. ‘Nature
Conservation in Solihull’ and the Council’s Natural Capital Investment Plan set out the
strategic objectives for biodiversity conservation in the Borough, and developers should take
these and other strategies relating to the natural environment into account. The Council will
work with Natural England and partners on the development and implementation of a Local
Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) l to reverse the fragmentation of ecological networks and
connect wildlife sites. Such initiatives will provide wildlife corridors and ‘sinks’ for species in
response to the effects of climate change, as well as provide multi-functional green
infrastructure to enhance ecosystem services.
329.
The policy recognises the importance of designated areas such as the nationally important
Sites of Special Scientific Interest, of which there are five in the Borough including the River
Blythe, and locally important wildlife and geological sites and nature reserves. It also
recognises that many of these
important
sites
are
in
unfavourable condition, and
the potential for nearby
development to help deliver
improvements. The policy sets
out the relative importance to
be attached to designated sites
when considering development
proposals,
including
the
special scrutiny afforded to
Sites of Special Scientific
Interest, in line with national
guidance.
However,
biodiversity conservation will
not be achieved by protecting
Sites of Special Scientific
Interest
alone.
Locally
important
wildlife
and
geological sites continue to be designated in the Borough and have been successfully
protected through policies in development plans for many years. The LNRS will identify and
further connect these ‘jewels in the crown’ with corridors and stepping stones for nature to
thrive.
330.
The policy highlights the importance of creating opportunities for wildlife in enhancing and
restoring the green infrastructure network both within and around new development sites.
Integrating biodiversity through green infrastructure networks and wildlife corridors will be
essential to halt and reverse the fragmentation of resources identified in the Lawton Report
and evidenced in the State of Nature report 2019. Developers will be expected to take proper
account of the value of sites proposed for development, to deliver a net gain in biodiversity
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