Issue - meetings

1.    Cabinet approved the Chilterns Beechwoods Special Area Conservation (SAC) Mitigation Strategy (Appendix A) and the Bunkers Park and Chipperfield Common SANG Management Plans (Appendix C) and delegates authority to the Strategic Director (Place), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Place to keep the approved documents under review and amend as required to ensure compliance with the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (as amended)

2.     Cabinet delegated authority to the Strategic Director (Place), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Place, to agree and complete any further governance documents between the partner authorities to facilitate the effective implementation and administration of the Mitigation Strategy and Management Plans referred to in recommendation 1 above.

Decision

1.    Cabinet approved the Chilterns Beechwoods Special Area Conservation (SAC) Mitigation Strategy (Appendix A) and the Bunkers Park and Chipperfield Common SANG Management Plans (Appendix C) and delegates authority to the Strategic Director (Place), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Place to keep the approved documents under review and amend as required to ensure compliance with the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (as amended)

2.     Cabinet delegated authority to the Strategic Director (Place), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Place, to agree and complete any further governance documents between the partner authorities to facilitate the effective implementation and administration of the Mitigation Strategy and Management Plans referred to in recommendation 1 above.

Corporate Priorities

Building strong and vibrant communities; Ensuring economic growth and prosperity; Climate and ecological emergency.

Statutory Officer Comments

Monitoring Officer:

The Habitats Regulations are a mandatory consideration and compliance with them is a legal obligation. The Mitigation Strategy will become a material consideration in the determination of planning applications and will offer important guidance to applicants as to how their applications will be dealt with in accordance with the Regulations. The Strategy will help to assist both applicants and the Council and ensure fair and consistent decision making.

S151 Officer:

The direct financial impact of this strategy is considered limited in the short term, with the costs of implementing and administering this strategy funded through the tariffs proposed.

The role of the Council in regard to the SAMM’s tariff is to ensure that we collect these funds from developers and pass them onto the National Trust to ensure they can invest these funds to deliver the agreed mitigation strategy and outcomes. There is no financial impact on the Council as the SAMM tariff includes the Council officer time and cost of administering this process.

The role of the Council in regard to SANG is more complex. The tariff that has been set, in relation to the Council’s SANG sites at Bunkers, Chipperfield and Gadebridge, is based on the projected costs of developing and maintaining these sites going forward, to give the Council the option to provide essential alternative areas of natural green space to facilitate new housing developments in these geographical areas.

The SANG tariff has been developed collectively across the Council, with a significant amount of horizon scanning resulting in a large volume of assumptions. At the present time, these assumptions are considered prudent but, as with any long term 80 year investment projection, there is a risk that costs could change in the medium to longer term.

The SAMMS and SANG tariffs will be collected from developers in line with the agreed strategy and utilising existing approved processes utilised for S106 and CIL collection. These are considered robust.

Advice

Cllr Anderson introduced the report and asked colleagues to ensure they have seen the amendments to the recommendations (Cllr Anderson read out the revised recommendations for clarity).

Cllr Anderson went on to advise that after 8 months of considerable effort, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100