Planning decisions can have a lasting impact on wildlife and the places it depends on. In Hertfordshire and Middlesex, built development is one of the most significant pressures facing nature, but planning also presents opportunities to create, restore and protect valuable habitats. In this Q&A, Simon Marsh, our Planning and Policy Manager, explains how the Trust gets involved in the planning process, what we look for when assessing proposals, and, most importantly, how you can help make sure wildlife has a voice. From keeping an eye on local planning applications to alerting us to developments that could affect important habitats, everyone can play a part in protecting nature through planning.

Tell us about your role at the Trust and your background

I’m the Trust’s Planning and Policy Manager and it’s my job to assess plans for development in Hertfordshire and Middlesex which may have significant impacts on wildlife. I’m a town planner by profession but a lifelong birdwatcher and I’ve been working in the nature conservation sector for more than 20 years. 

How does the Trust get involved in the planning process?

We have limited resources available at the Trust so I need to be very careful to prioritise which plans we get involved with. This means we only engage with those plans which have the most significant impacts (positive or negative) on wildlife (or biodiversity, the term that planners use). My top priority is the local plans which are produced by all local planning authorities, because these provide the policy framework for all planning applications. In terms of planning applications, I will engage with those of strategic significance, such as housing schemes of more than 1,000 dwellings, or proposals for minerals extraction, solar farms or golf courses.

I’ll also engage with proposals that threaten Local Wildlife Sites or Trust nature reserves. In practice, this is where most of my work on planning applications comes from, as there are more than 1,800 Local Wildlife Sites in Hertfordshire, and many housing developments affect them.

Sometimes a major application can rather take over my work, like our campaign to save Broadwater Lake from an activity and watersports centre. The proposal for a third runway at Heathrow may do the same.

Are there misconceptions about what we can do? 

We often get asked to intervene in planning applications which affect the Green Belt. Hertfordshire is in an area of high demand for housing and the Green Belt is under pressure. However, we won’t comment on Green Belt issues as it’s not within our charitable remit and will only intervene if there’s a significant impact on wildlife as described above.

How can our members/supporters help us with our planning work? 

The best way you can help us is to let us know when there’s a planning application that may threaten wildlife. We get consulted on some plans but there are probably many more that we aren’t consulted on and we might miss, so you are our eyes and ears on the ground. The best way is to email us at planning@hmwt.org and let us know the planning reference number so we can follow it up. We welcome hearing from you and although we can’t promise to get further involved, we’ll always try to provide some advice.

What guidance do you have on responding to planning applications and development threats in our neighbourhoods? 

If you want to respond to a planning application, the best place to start is by looking at the planning pages of our website, which gives ten tips (check out the drop down on this page). I’ll just mention one here. If you’re reading through the planning documents on your council’s website (and there can be lots of these), start with the developer’s Planning Statement, which should give you a clear view of what the development entails.

Your book 'Planning for Nature' has recently been published by Pelagic. What inspired you to write it? And what are the key/three things you would hope someone reading it would take away with them?

I previously worked at the RSPB, and I wanted to tell the story of RSPB planning casework over the last 25 years or so; planning battles to defend special places for wildlife. Case studies cover many different types of development, from airports to housing, windfarms to golf courses, across every part of the UK. The final chapter is on how people can get involved in planning, which includes not only how to respond to a planning application but tips on campaigning.

My three key things I take from the chapter on planning principles. Firstly, town planning is an art and a science, but it’s not rocket science. Everyone can engage in the process. Secondly, nature should be everywhere, even in the most urban environments. And thirdly (this is really one for developers), some places are just too special to be developed and must be protected for nature – don’t even think about building there!

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