There are potentially big changes coming to the planning laws which could have a massive impact on Danes Moss and the ability to protect it…
“Build, baby, build” – but not on irreplaceable natural habitats
We are not against development in general – just development that is bad for nature and communities.
So, we have very mixed feelings about the government’s Planning and Infrastructure bill that is making its way through parliament.
We like most of Part 1 of the bill which deals with infrastructure, especially Chapter 2 that covers renewable electricity generation. We even welcome some of the provisions in Part 2 that propose something called a “Spatial Development Plan” which could cover an area such as Cheshire, and that would provide a context for Cheshire East’s replacement Local Plan.
We are, however, deeply concerned at most of Part 3 – “Development and Nature Recovery”– which contains some serious threats to our critically important wild sites.
One of the few potential safeguards against indiscriminate damage to wildlife and habitats in the current bill, is a requirement to take the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) into account when preparing Spatial Development Plans. The Cheshire & Warrington LNRS is in the final stages of public consultation, and our carefully considered response is here.
The consultation closes on 31 st March 2025, so there is not much time left for people to respond to this. We apologise for the late publication of our comments – it has taken a long time to analyse the details and relationship to the Planning & Infrastructure bill.
In February, Danes Moss Trust responded to a half-hearted attempt by the government
at consultation on Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure bill. Only a week after the consultation closed the bill had its first reading in the House of Commons – not much time for considering consultation responses. Our comments are here in our Response to the Government Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery and were sent to our MP as well as the government’s online consultation page.
We will be writing to Tim Roca MP in the near future to express our concerns and will share our thoughts on this with you as soon as possible.
