We use cookies to improve user experience and analyze website traffic. By clicking “Accept”, you agree to our website’s cookie use as described in our Cookie Policy. To view our Cookie Policy in full click here.
This website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Analytical cookies help us enhance our website by collecting information on its usage.
Being sympathetic to the natural environment is a general basic principle for development. In Kent, we go further. We want to see plans that not only maintain and preserve biodiversity, but actively seek to improve it from the outset. Such plans are more likely to be approved quickly, saving you time and money. Encouraging biodiversity also makes your development more visually attractive, increasing its appeal to potential buyers, and creates positive PR opportunities.
Biodiversity should be included in your plans from the very beginning, as set out in BS 42020. Your plan should avoid impact on habitats and species in the first instance and specify mitigation measures to limit any impacts that cannot be effectively avoided. You may provide compensation only as a last resort, where avoiding and mitigation have proved impossible. We strongly recommend employing an experienced, reputable ecological consultant to advise you.
This page summarises Kent County Council’s Biodiversity guidance, our full technical guidance can be found here:
We want to see that your development enhances existing habitats and leaves them measurably better than they were before. Please note that the specific requirements we set for your development will be in addition to national and other local targets. For larger developments, biodiversity net-gain will form the basis for future habitat management regimes.
The good news is that biodiversity net-gain can often be achieved in combination with other requirements, such as including wetland reedbed habitats and native aquatic vegetation in Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS), and planting hawthorn hedging.
Natural England has a free-to-use biodiversity metric tool you can use to calculate your development’s net-gain or loss, based on the existing habitats.
Image: Swifts nesting in boxes cladded in stone.
At the design stage, you need to consider how your site’s ecological interests will be safeguarded in the future. Management plans must prioritise ecology where agreed, and mitigation and enhancement areas should be accessible for site managers for the development’s lifetime.
Image: Bat boxes can be integrated into the fabric of new developments.
When planning green space within your development, you need to consider and balance its various potential functions. These include:
There are many ways to include biodiversity in your design, including:
