Agenda item

To receive the Biodiversity Net Gain and Essex Local Nature Partnership update.

The Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator, Essex County Council joined the meeting and talked through a presentation on the Essex Local Nature Partnership, the Local Nature Recovery Strategy and the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) guidance pack.

She highlighted the following:-

·       Essex County Councils’ Local Nature Partnership (LNP) was launched in March 2022.

·       There were 45-50 partners within the LNP chaired by Dr Simon Lister.

·       The LNP was set up to drive positive changes within the local natural environment and to contribute to achieving the governments national environmental objectives on a local scale.  It aimed to help the local area manage the natural environment for the benefit of people and nature.

The 4 targets which had been adopted were:-

·       50% sustainable farming.

·       Increase natural green infrastructure from 14% to 25% by 2030.

·       1 in 4 people should be taking action for wildlife by 2030.

·       Access to high quality green space for all.

The Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator said that the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) was a statutory requirement introduced in the Environment Act 2021 and aimed to drive actions for nature recovery.  She made the following points:-

·       ECC were the responsible authority tasked to deliver the strategy across the whole of greater Essex. 

·       The LNRS would underpin the wider Nature Recovery Network across the whole of England. 

·       The strategy was important to connect up spaces that already existed or where there was the opportunity for them to exist for nature.

·       Further guidance from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was expected March/April 2023.

·       A lot of the data had already been collected in order to map the spaces and opportunities.

The Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator gave details of the Biodiversity Net Gain Working Group.  She made the following comments:-

·       A guidance pack had been produced.

·       DEFRA had also released their response to the national consultation but it did not change the overall guidance substantially.

·       Each district was working towards implementation by November 2023.

·       The aim was to achieve 20% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) rather than the mandatory 10%. 

·       Extra funding had been confirmed of £16.7 million spread across every district.

The Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator agreed to circulate the presentation slides, along with her contact details and the BNG guidance pack to all councillors.

The Chair said that the emerging Local Plan was aiming for 20% BNG. 

In response to Members questions the following comments were made:-

·       Still awaiting DEFRA guidance on how the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) funding for agriculture works with these strategies.  Land owners were not willing to commit because of all the unknowns, the guidance in February made no mention of ELMS. 

·       The Farm Clusters were a group of farmers who had come together to share practices on sustainability, creating spaces for nature and knowledge of current schemes. 

·       The North Essex Farm cluster had a series of events about water sustainability and winter bird feed. 

·       There were likely to be farmers from Uttlesford District Council (UDC) in that cluster and a recent questionnaire sent to the farmers within Essex had received 20 responses from farms within Uttlesford. 

·       The Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator said she would see what data she could extract from the responses that related to Uttlesford. There had been a specific question about how farms had been diversified.  All the results of the survey were anonymous.  

·       It was intended that the LNRS would cross county boundaries and although there was not much guidance from DEFRA, the team at ECC were in touch with Hertfordshire, London and Cambridge as well as other counties.  Suffolk and Norfolk Water were also involved. 

·       The 25% figure for the natural green infrastructure coverage had been  adopted from the Essex Climate Action report which had been calculated using national and local data sets and had been verified.  As COP had nationally agreed 30% the Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator agreed to ask the Land Use and Green Infrastructure team how that figure had been reached. She would feed back. 

The Chair said there was a pocket of land in Thaxted owned by ECC that was being turned into a nature conversation area, joined up with another piece of land gifted under section 106 and left for rewilding.  She asked that this was protected by ECC. 

The Chair agreed to share with the group information on a recent biodiversity survey.  The Local Nature Recovery Co-Ordinator agreed to keep in touch and share information on the progress of the LNRS.

The Chair thanked the speaker for her presentation.

The meeting ended at 8:25pm