Response from Mr Nick Sandford, The Woodland Trust
1. Mr Nick Sandford, The Woodland Trust : 8 Jan 2016 14:54:00
Policy Area and Topic
Quality Environment and Quality Design - Trees and Landscaping
Are there any other topics you think we have missed? You may wish to refer to Section 8 of the Discussion Paper 'Other Saved Local Plan Policies'.
We would like to see the trees and landscaping section of the document developed further into a comprehensive policy covering all aspects of trees and woodland. This could include some issues which are covered under green infrastructure in the consultation document.
Please make your comments below on the Policy Area / Topic you have selected. Where appropriate, make reference to the Option you prefer and the question number referred to in the Discussion Paper.
Under this section, we prefer option 2, the development of a new policy in relation to trees and woodland.
We would like to see this policy include both individual trees, groups of trees and woodland. Paragraph 5.14 gives a fairly good high level indication of the key benefits of trees, woods, hedgerows etc. We would like to see a policy of retaining existing trees and woods wherever possible. It is important to state clearly that ancient woodland and ancient/veteran trees need to be given a very high level of protection, as once lost they cannot be replaced. We favour wordings which state that loss of these habitats should be permitted "only under wholly exceptional circumstances".
In the case of trees outside woods which are not in the ancient or veteran category, it is good practice to require that any tree which is removed must be replaced by at least two others wherever possible. This recognises that not all newly planted trees will survive and also the fact that it will take many decades for a newly planted tree to provide similar biodiversity or amenity benefits to one which has been removed.
Where we would like the policy to go much further is in requiring significant new planting of trees and woods, particularly where opportunities present themselves as part of new development. This is mentioned in the section on green infrastructure but it would be good to include it also in the trees policy.
Including targets for tree planting and/or woodland creation is often useful. Some local authorities have adopted targets in terms of planting a fixed number of trees over a given period (for example one tree for every child in the council area?), for increasing the tree canopy cover or for improving people's access to woodland. On the last of these, Woodland Trust has developed an Access to Woodland Standard, from which woodland creation targets can be derived: it aspires that everyone should have a small wood of at least two hectares within 500 metres of their home and a larger wood of at least 20 hectares within 4km of their home. Details of this can be found in our Space for People report which can be downloaded from our website at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk .
Please provide any other comments you wish to make in the box below:
I would be happy to talk to your officers further about any of the issues I have raised. Please contact me on 08452 935 564 if you would find this helpful..... Nick Sandford
