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Planning & Biodiversity Conference - April 2011
A "Planning and Biodiversity Conference" was held at the at the Moller Centre in Cambridge (www.mollercentre.co.uk) on Thursday 14th April 2011 from 10 am to 4.15 pm.
The conference provided an overview of the latest developments and emerging best practice related to spatial planning, development control and biodiversity and featured a series of presentations and case studies.
Unless stated otherwise all the documents linked below are PDFs which can be read using the free Acrobat Reader.
Tony Juniper
The day started with an inspiring talk by Tony Juniper, a well-known campaigner, author and environmentalist, who writes for the Guardian.
Gary Grant
This was followed by a presentation by Gary Grant, an independent ecological consultant with three decades of experience
including regional and green infrastructure planning.
Download Links (15KBytes)
Robert McCracken
Robert McCracken QC, a leading public, planning and environmental lawyer who appears at all levels from the European Court of Justice to
magistrates courts and planning inquiries then explained about environmental planning law within Local Authorities.
Useful links: Supreme court rules on Habitats Directive (2.7Mbytes) and an article on
Local Government Lawyer.
Brian Eversham
The afternoon session opened with Brian Eversham, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire
explaining how voluntary bodies can assist Local Authorities in meeting their biodiversity obligations as the "Big Society in action".
Download Presentation (13MBytes)
or Presentation with Notes (12MBytes)
Heather Webb
Heather Webb, Biodiversity Coordinator for Bedfordshire, then explained how biodiversity information is being used
to "Predict Wildlife Site Sensitivity to Visitor Pressure".
Download Presentation (3MBytes)
Workshops
There then followed breakout groups in which the role of biodiversity data in planning decisions was explored.
Workshop Notes (24KBytes), Snapshot of real BRMC data (1.2MBytes).
Gary Butcher & Peregrine
Gary Butcher of Wingbeat Falconry toured the group sessions, allowing close examination of a Peregrine, explained their life-style and how they are protected by the law.
Feedback
Delegates were asked to provide feedback about the day. If you attended and would still like to do so, the form is available HERE (.doc)
Hosts
The conference was jointly hosted by the BRMC and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Environmental Record Centre (CPERC)
