Arcadis have now completed their plans for the Supported Housing Scheme, and in conjunction with the Case Officer, have formally submitted the plans to the Planning Committee.

These will be considered on the 25th September 2024 with a recommendation to permit.

There are many unanswered questions to be resolved, and the full impact both during construction and subsequently is unclear.

However, the loss of this unique habitat now looks inevitable, despite the Council’s commitment to resolving the self-declared Ecological Emergency.

There are serious concerns over tree loss, with substantial mis-identification errors in the Arboriculture report, and the Biodiversity Net Gain which shows a net loss of -51% watercourse and -11% habitat loss, against a background of the habitat loss already sustained by neglect and damage of the last few years, which has severely diminished the presence of some species.

BNG is a complicated and somewhat difficult metric to evaluate (there is serious academic doubt over it’s effectiveness) but the calculations are presented here.