Biodiversity and green spaces

5.1.  In the biodiversity and green spaces theme we set out policies to protect and enhance biodiversity and improve the network of green spaces in Greater Cambridge.

Our strategic priority for our biodiversity and green spaces policies

5.2.  Strategic Priority: Increase and improve our network of habitats for wildlife, and green spaces for people, ensuring that development leaves the natural environment better than it was before.

5.3.  Cambridge City Council and South Cambridge District Council declared a biodiversity emergency in 2019, in recognition of the pressures facing our natural world, both locally and internationally. Working as part of the Local Nature Partnership, we want to double nature by 2050. We also want to play our part in implementing Cambridgeshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which was adopted by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

5.4.  To inform the overall strategy for the plan we considered the best locations to restore our area’s habitat networks and provide more green spaces for people to enjoy. The local plan has identified 14 strategic green infrastructure initiatives to help achieve this. The identified initiatives will deliver green infrastructure directly, but we will also secure planning contributions where funding can be used to enhance the wider network.

5.5.  Reflecting our ‘doubling nature’ ambition, our policies seek a higher level of biodiversity gains from new development than the national requirement. We have followed Natural England’s new Green Infrastructure Framework, to develop standards that will ensure places include green spaces, trees, and places for people as well as wildlife.

What our biodiversity and green spaces policies do

• Protect important sites for biodiversity, and require new developments to contribute to gains in biodiversity, setting a standard above the national requirement.
• Ensure development is designed to incorporate green spaces and helps to expand the wider green infrastructure network.
• Preserve, protect and enhance existing trees and hedgerows, acknowledging the benefits that this brings for climate change adaption as well as biodiversity.
• Control development on our river corridors balancing the many roles our watercourses have, including for recreation, wildlife habitats, and drainage.
• Protect and enhance important open spaces in our communities.