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No. 46 NEWSLETTER Summer 2000
WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH, BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION
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The pen is mightier than the scythe ?
It is a glorious Sunday morning as the five of us stride up the ridge to the
Camp Farm, Great Whitley conservation day. Thick, dense hawthorn and bramble
have covered the ridge, which had been grassed pasture up to twenty years ago.
We will spend our time with chain saw, cutters and scythes adding to the already
cleared areas. The intertwined hawthorn appears to have been tipped off about
our impending attack and has somehow managed to interlock itself together. As
the chain saw clearly severs it from the ground the hawthorn stands firm
supported by its neighbours. Desperate tugging finally releases a tall, thorny
branch with a whip like a willow, catching forearms and bald heads with unerring
accuracy. And the surprise is that beneath this thick blanket, small primroses
and violets still survive.
But I am an experienced local authority manager. And in truth my time could have
been more productively used. A sentence in the Unitary Development Plan (UDP)
would have far reaching results in protecting sensitive sites. If only the Dingy
Skipper site in Walsall had been identified in 1986 when Walsall used its UDP to
allocate the site for development, then the current problem would have been
avoided.
So what is a UDP and why is it more powerful than a day's conservation work. It
can also be called a Development Plan or a Local Plan. It is a formal local
authority document, setting out the planning framework for what types of
development are suitable and where. If land is allocated in the UDP to housing
then any developer knows that, in principle, an application to build houses has
to be successful. It's only the detail that has to be thrashed out. However, a
site identified, as being of special natural interest, is far better protected
against developments.
Now a local council updates its UDP roughly every 10 years. Find out when yours
is going to be revised and if it is in the next two years, you are in luck. The
best-compiled list of the current status of UDP's is from solicitors Edge
Ellison. When an UDP is revised you have the opportunity to lobby and argue for
measures to be included protecting specific sites or giving general guidance on
protecting, improving habitats. For instance, in urban areas, rivers and streams
were regularly put in culverts or into brick lined open drains whose purpose was
solely to get rid of rain water as fast as possible. However, recent revised
UDP's are now stating that when redeveloping sites, watercourses should be taken
out of culverts, and returned as natural features.
So, if you are in an area that needs willow trees, you can argue that in
landscaping developments, willows should normally be planted, (but not too close
to house foundations or drains). If you need to connect two areas of woodland
you may get a developer to do it as part of a so called section 106 planning
agreement to compensate for his removing trees elsewhere. This is made much
easier if the UDP has identified as an aim the reinstatement of the woodland.
Use your imagination to identify what is necessary to conserve or protect
butterfly habitats. Remember if you cannot it is likely that no one else can
either. So, however boring it is, the effort put in to UDP's can bring
tremendous long-term rewards for your projects far in excess of days spent on
conservation activities.
But, as I spend the evening digging thorns out of my arms and legs, I must admit
it is far more satisfying to spend a day high on a ridge, than getting boring
council documents changed.
Some of the revision dates for local UDP's are:
Cannock Chase- issues paper due early summer 2000
Staffordshire Moorlands- August 2000
Dudley MBC- deposit draft due spring 2000
Sandwell MBC- deposit draft due May 2000
Walsall MBC- deposit draft due September 2000
Wychavon- key issues paper summer 2000
Name and address supplied – Ed.
Addendum: Actions needed from you – the ratepayer
1. Contact your local district council, inquire from the Chief Executive’s
office the progress of the UDP. If it is before the First Deposit or Revised
Deposit stage, ask for a draft as you have the potential, as an individual, to
change it! The county council often has “Structure Plans” which give the
strategy on which the local UDP is based, but it is only the UDP which refers to
specific sites which are “zoned” for various types of development or not.
2. If you see anything of concern make representations to the Chief Planner. It
would be useful to know the status of the council’s own Biodiversity Action Plan
(BAP) before becoming too involved, check that it is referred to in the draft
UDP;, if not, ask for it to be included.
3. Ask the district council for the names of the following two people: the
councillor who is Chairman of the Planning Committee (also the Chairman of the
sub-district if you want to urge action about a site in that area) and the Chief
Planner.
4. Communicate directly with them. Don’t get disheartened by a slow or neutral
reply, this appears to be part of their culture.
When UDPs are finally adopted they automatically become part of the “mindset” of
those who work for the local authority, they also have semi-legal power, hence
their importance. Another “mindset” equates one letter received as the
equivalent of ten ratepayers with strong opinions about a particular issue.
Local authorities, therefore, do react, you have the power – use it.
Richard Southwell
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