Local Plan 2040 Draft Plan - Strategy options and draft policies consultation

We welcome the proposal to include a requirement for environmental net gain, incorporating biodiversity net gain and we would like to see the commitment to creation of additional habitats include tree planting and woodland creation. We would like to see the amount of net gain required specified in the policy. We favour a specification of 20% net gain in biodiversity as a means of ensuring that development delivers significant net gain.

We also strongly support policy 38 in the adopted Bedford Local Plan, which requires development in the area of the Forest of Marston Vale to include 30% tree canopy cover. In our Emergency Tree Plan (published in January 2020 and available in the publications section of our website, we set out how trees and woodland can contribute significantly to tackling both the climate and biodiversity emergencies. In this paper, we argue for achievement of 30% tree canopy cover in all new development. So we would like you to consider extending your policy from just the Forest of Marston Vale to the whole of the district.

We generally support this paragraph and note that many of the policies in the Local Plan 2030 are to remain unchanged. We would like you to consider particularly the role which trees and woods can play in tackling both the climate and biodiversity emergencies. Trees can sequester carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and can also aid adaptation in a number of ways, including alleviation of surface water flooding and shading to reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect in hot summer weather.

We would like you to consider whether there is a need to adopt higher targets for tree and woodland planting and one thing we have suggested previously is extending the requirement for 30% tree canopy cover in new development across the whole borough: currently this only applies in the Forest of Marston Vale.