Confused about how BNG affects your site area?
Confused about BNG affecting your site area?
Here’s a tip
Consider carefully the position of your red line before the ecological survey for your development site is carried out. Why – because the redline of the development area and the extent of the ecological survey must match.
If you inadvertently include a wider area, then ecological features that raise the value of the existing habitat may be included in the metric calculation and these will raise the 10% needed to enhance the habitat value within the site boundary.
Conversely, if the site is larger than the ecological survey you have carried out your representation of the habitat units will be insufficient.
Don’t expect local authority officers to miss this. They won’t!
When the planning submission is made ensure that the BNG statement, the metric and ecological survey are properly correlated, and all of these match the development area boundary.
These considerations are particularly relevant if the development proposed is to be phased across a wider area. If an ecological survey is part of the baseline survey information across the whole site that informs the strategic design process (as it should be) then subsequent smaller scale surveys for the individual applications will need to be carried out in order that the metric matches the area calculation.
If you need more help with understanding biodiversity net gain and the way it affects site design strategy please get in touch.
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