Objective 8: Improve, manage and promote biodiversity and nature recovery.
At a time when green fields and wildlife sites are being developed for housing and industry, it is more important than ever to hold developers and the council to account. n the text box to start editing your content and make sure to add all the relevant details you want to share with site visitors.
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"What we will do:
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• Ensure that new development and land management demonstrates significant improvements to biodiversity and nature recovery by developing and implementing policies in the District Plan Review (including Biodiversity Net Gain) and working with stakeholders to implement the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (subject to secondary legislation)".
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The Coalition comment: What? All we see are disappearing green fields and wider roads while the large brown field site that is Burgess Hill Town Centre, stands untouched. The 'secondary legislation' mentioned is the Environment Act 2021 which forces the creation of the Recovery plans, although much of the detail of how these will work in practise is still to be decided.
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• "Refresh the management plans for the Council’s countryside sites to ensure they deliver maximum benefit in terms of biodiversity and environmental impact".
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The Coalition comment: Let's see the facts and figures. Which sites, how measured and by whom, and who will advise on the work to improve them?
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• "Build on the success of local rewilding initiatives to oversee a managed and incremental growth in the proportion of Council-owned land managed for biodiversity under the national BLUE campaign".
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The Coalition comment: this needs to move away from being a few token sites to the default setting.
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• "Set out how MSDC will allocate resources to meet the strengthened biodiversity duty contained in the Environment Act 2021. Begin by contracting a consultant to deliver a short-term, desk-based natural capitalmapping of Mid Sussex, that will form the basis for a Mid Sussex nature recovery network (to be budgeted from the Sustainability and Climate Change Special Reserve) and conducted with use of WSCC’s project mapping tool to ensure coherence".
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The Coalition comment: A lot of this mapping has already been done by conservationists drawing wildlife corridors and other such endeavours. The proof of the pudding will be what is done with the information; will it stop any developments, encourage farmers to change land use?
The table below sets out the measure of success, What the Council will do, timescale, lead delivery organisation and delivery partners.
