Planning for Nature: Development Management and Wildlife Guide helps guide applicants through the different steps in designing a proposal to ensure that biodiversity is taken into account early on in the thought process.

By providing certainty for applicants of the expected information required by the council, it is hoped the guidance will help avoid delays or refusal of proposals.

The guidance covers how to address protected areas and species, provide suitable survey information, and use that survey information to develop good designs that protect and promote wider biodiversity.

Specific minimum mitigation measures commonly requested by the council have been standardised, including requirements for artificial bird nesting bricks and bat roosts in appropriate places, hedgehog highways and compensatory tree planting.

The council is inviting comment on the guidance via its Consultation Hub. The consultation is now open to the public until 31 October 2021.