Nether Alderley Neighbourhood Plan Regulation 16 Consultation

Comment

Representation ID: 53

Received: 17/10/2025

Respondent: Natural England

Dear Mr Woolridge
Nether Alderley Neighbourhood Development Plan - Regulation 16 Consultation
Thank you for your consultation on the above dated 08 September 2025.
Natural England is a non-departmental public body. Our statutory purpose is to ensure that the natural environment is conserved, enhanced, and managed for the benefit of present and future generations, thereby contributing to sustainable development.
Natural England is a statutory consultee in neighbourhood planning and must be consulted on draft neighbourhood development plans by the Parish/Town Councils or Neighbourhood Forums where they consider our interests would be affected by the proposals made.
Natural England does not have any specific comments on this draft neighbourhood plan.
However, we refer you to the attached annex which covers the issues and opportunities that should be considered when preparing a Neighbourhood Plan and to the following information.
Natural England does not hold information on the location of significant populations of protected species, so is unable to advise whether this plan is likely to affect protected species to such an extent as to require a Strategic Environmental Assessment. Further information on protected species and development is included in Natural England's Standing Advice on protected species .
Furthermore, Natural England does not routinely maintain locally specific data on all environmental assets. The plan may have environmental impacts on priority species and/or habitats, local wildlife sites, soils and best and most versatile agricultural land, or on local landscape character that may be sufficient to warrant a Strategic Environmental Assessment. Information on ancient woodland, ancient and veteran trees is set out in Natural England/Forestry Commission standing advice.
We therefore recommend that advice is sought from your ecological, landscape and soils advisers, local record centre, recording society or wildlife body on the local soils, best and most versatile agricultural land, landscape, geodiversity and biodiversity receptors that may be affected by the plan before determining whether a Strategic Environmental Assessment is necessary.
Natural England reserves the right to provide further advice on the environmental assessment of the plan. This includes any third party appeal against any screening decision you may make. If an Strategic Environmental Assessment is required, Natural England must be consulted at the scoping and environmental report stages.
For any further consultations on your plan, please contact: consultations@naturalengland.org.uk.
Yours sincerely
Sally Wintle
Consultations Team
Annex 1 - Neighbourhood planning and the natural environment: information, issues and opportunities
Natural environment information sources
The Magic1 website will provide you with much of the nationally held natural environment data for your plan area. The most relevant layers for you to consider are: Agricultural Land Classification, Ancient Woodland, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Local Nature Reserves, National Parks (England), National Trails, Priority Habitat Inventory, public rights of way (on the Ordnance Survey base map) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (including their impact risk zones). Local environmental record centres may hold a range of additional information on the natural environment. A list of local record centres is available from the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres .
Priority habitats are those habitats of particular importance for nature conservation, and the list of them can be found here2. Most of these will be mapped either as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, on the Magic website or as Local Wildlife Sites. Your local planning authority should be able to supply you with the locations of Local Wildlife Sites.
National Character Areas (NCAs) divide England into 159 distinct natural areas. Each character area is defined by a unique combination of landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity and cultural and economic activity. NCA profiles contain descriptions of the area and statements of environmental opportunity, which may be useful to inform proposals in your plan. NCA information can be found here3.
There may also be a local landscape character assessment covering your area. This is a tool to help understand the character and local distinctiveness of the landscape and identify the features that give it a sense of place. It can help to inform, plan and manage change in the area. Your local planning authority should be able to help you access these if you can’t find them online.
If your neighbourhood planning area is within or adjacent to a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the relevant National Park/AONB Management Plan for the area will set out useful information about the protected landscape. You can access the plans on from the relevant National Park Authority or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty website.
General mapped information on soil types and Agricultural Land Classification is available (under ’landscape’) on the Magic4 website and also from the LandIS website5, which contains more information about obtaining soil data.
Natural environment issues to consider
The National Planning Policy Framework6 sets out national planning policy on protecting and enhancing the natural environment. Planning Practice Guidance7 sets out supporting guidance.
Your local planning authority should be able to provide you with further advice on the potential impacts of your plan or order on the natural environment and the need for any environmental assessments.
Landscape
Your plans or orders may present opportunities to protect and enhance locally valued landscapes. You may want to consider identifying distinctive local landscape features or characteristics such as ponds, woodland or dry stone walls and think about how any new development proposals can respect and enhance local landscape character and distinctiveness.
If you are proposing development within or close to a protected landscape (National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) or other sensitive location, we recommend that you carry out a landscape assessment of the proposal. Landscape assessments can help you to choose the most appropriate sites for development and help to avoid or minimise impacts of development on the landscape through careful siting, design and landscaping.
1 http://magic.defra.gov.uk/
2 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/habitats-and-species-of-principal-importance-in-england
3 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-character-area-profiles-data-for-local-decision-making
4 http://magic.defra.gov.uk/
5 http://www.landis.org.uk/index.cfm
6 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2
7 http://planningguidance.planningportal.gov.uk/blog/guidance/natural-environment/
Wildlife habitats
Some proposals can have adverse impacts on designated wildlife sites or other priority habitats (listed here8), such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Ancient woodland9. If there are likely to be any adverse impacts you’ll need to think about how such impacts can be avoided, mitigated or, as a last resort, compensated for.
Priority and protected species
You’ll also want to consider whether any proposals might affect priority species (listed here 10) or protected species. To help you do this, Natural England has produced advice here11 to help understand the impact of particular developments on protected species.
Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land
Soil is a finite resource that fulfils many important functions and services for society. It is a growing medium for food, timber and other crops, a store for carbon and water, a reservoir of biodiversity and a buffer against pollution. If you are proposing development, you should seek to use areas of poorer quality agricultural land in preference to that of a higher quality in line with National Planning Policy Framework para 112. For more information, see Guide to assessing development proposals on agricultural land 12.
Improving your natural environment
Your plan or order can offer exciting opportunities to enhance your local environment and should provide net gains for biodiversity in line with the National Planning Policy Framework. If you are setting out policies on new development or proposing sites for development, you should follow the biodiversity mitigation hierarchy and seek to ensure impacts on habitats are avoided or minimised before considering opportunities for biodiversity enhancement. You may wish to consider identifying what environmental features you want to be retained or enhanced or new features you would like to see created as part of any new development and how these could contribute to biodiversity net gain and wider environmental goals.
Opportunities for environmental enhancement might include:
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Restoring a neglected hedgerow.
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Creating a new pond as an attractive feature on the site.
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Planting trees characteristic to the local area to make a positive contribution to the local landscape.
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Using native plants in landscaping schemes for better nectar and seed sources for bees and birds.
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Incorporating swift boxes or bat boxes into the design of new buildings.
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Think about how lighting can be best managed to reduce impacts on wildlife.
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Adding a green roof to new buildings.
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Providing a new footpath through the new development to link into existing rights of way.
Site allocations should be supported by a baseline assessment of biodiversity value. The statutory Biodiversity Metric may be used to understand the number of biodiversity units present on allocated sites. For small development allocations the Small Sites Metric may be used. This is a simplified version of the statutory Biodiversity Metric and is designed for use where certain criteria are met. Further information on biodiversity net gain including planning practice guidance can be found here
You may also want to consider enhancing your local area in other ways, for example by:
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Setting out in your plan how you would like to implement elements of a wider Green Infrastructure Strategy (if one exists) in your community.
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Assessing needs for accessible greenspace and setting out proposals to address any deficiencies or enhance provision. Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework sets out further information on green infrastructure standards and principles
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Identifying green areas of particular importance for special protection through Local Green Space designation (see Planning Practice Guidance13).
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Managing existing (and new) public spaces to be more wildlife friendly (e.g. by sowing wild flower strips in less used parts of parks or on verges, changing hedge cutting timings and frequency).
8 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/habitats-and-species-of-principal-importance-in-england
9 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ancient-woodland-and-veteran-trees-protection-surveys-licences
10 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/habitats-and-species-of-principal-importance-in-england
11 https://www.gov.uk/protected-species-and-sites-how-to-review-planning-proposals
12https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-land-assess-proposals-for-development/guide-to-assessing-development-proposals-on-agricultural-land
13 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/open-space-sports-and-recreation-facilities-public-rights-of-way-and-local-green-space
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Planting additional street trees.
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Identifying any improvements to the existing public right of way network, e.g. cutting back hedges, improving the surface, clearing litter or installing kissing gates) or extending the network to create missing links.
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Restoring neglected environmental features (e.g. coppicing a prominent hedge that is in poor condition, or clearing away an eyesore).
Natural England’s Environmental Benefits from Nature tool may be used to identify opportunities to enhance wider benefits from nature and to avoid and minimise any negative impacts. It is designed to work alongside the statutory Biodiversity Metric and is available as a beta test version.