DCAP
We had our monthly meeting on Thursday and tried to do some Thermal Imaging of 4 homes at the same time – which was ambitious. The only way to make it work was to split the group in two and I wasn’t really happy with things working out that way. Earlier in the week I spent some time looking through Parish Plans and Neighbourhood Development Plans from across the Dengie looking for opportunities and commitments.
Jo Coombes and I have been working on an idea I’m tentatively calling ‘Looking out for Nature’ inspired by the work that Wild Justice did identifying that ‘Nearly half of the nature-friendly enhancements promised by developers building new homes have failed to materialise’. I shared this report on local social media and suggested that because Maldon District Council has no professional ecologists on staff it was in high peril of developers not fulfilling their legal biodiversity commitments. I got a comment that ‘MDC Planning employs Planning Enforcement Officers who are responsible for investigating developments where planning has not been granted and checking that planning conditions attached to planning approvals have actually been carried out. Where a condition regarding trees or bird box has been inserted then they would check the compliance’ with a link to the Planning Enforcement. If you actually look at the Planning Enforcement site though it doesn’t support the claim that Planning Enforcement are proactive and makes checks. ‘ Their own overview description of their work simply states: ‘The planning enforcement team has responsibility for investigating complaints [my emphasis] principally where unauthorised development has taken place and aims to resolve these using the most appropriate means.’ i.e. they are reactive. It’s impossible to see how planning authorities like Maldon will be able to assess whether developments meet the 10% biodiversity gain
This places the responsibility to identify breaches with concerned citizens, hence the project. Do we really have the capacity to do it though?
Continue reading “Weeknotes 02025 Q1 W5”
Dengie Bioregion 