Friends of Betteshanger Country Park

The Friends of Betteshanger are moving to Bluesky. Thanks for all the interest and support. It’s been so appreciated.

🗣️ 'Public trust in planning has declined partly due to the consistent drive to marginalise the voice of the public. Communities are assumed to be incapable of understanding their own best interests – leading to infantile name calling around ‘Nimbys’.' tcpa.org.uk/planning-refor…

Does anyone know why the Prime Minister is so taken by the extreme views of a few commercial lobbyists and their followers and so resistant to the complex answers to house building needs in the real world? It's beginning to throw his entire government off course.

Latest Government ideas on planning and nature recovery. It looks as if developers will no longer have to carry out ecological assessments of individual sites. This will be replaced by strategic plans that they can pay into. gov.uk/government/new…

Here is the consultation on the Government’s working paper on Development and Nature’s Recovery. Please share. consult.communities.gov.uk/planning-polic…

Here is a link to the Governments working paper on development and nature recovery. You can respond by answering questions at the end and adding your own comments

The Government had just produced a new working paper on Development and Nature Recovery. What they are proposing won’t work for sites like Betteshanger Park where a range of protected species are impacted. We will be responding to the expected consultation.

@RSBenwell At Betteshanger Country Park development will result in harm to a range of protected species including Lizard Orchids, Water Voles, Fiery Clearwing moths and removal of open mosaic habitat. An example of where a Nature Restoration Fund just won’t work.

Principle 3: it doesn't work for everything A Fund can work well for some laws, like nutrient neutrality, where reducing pollution across catchments really works. It won't in other cases, eg. bats, where existing rules must remain Strong scientific rules & monitoring are vital

A Nature Restoration Fund to help developers meet their legal responsibilities for nature *could* be positive if it's done well, but it mustn't become a free pass for unsustainable building. A 🧵of some risks and opportunities. thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

@StevePa46290725 Over 620 Lizard Orchids at Betteshanger Country Park will be dug up from the second largest colony in the UK and ‘translocated’ to make way for a surf lagoon.

Daily orchid (day 19). I’m posting a picture of a native U.K. orchid, taken by me over the last couple of years, every day, until New Years Eve. Today the fabulous Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum), Kent, early June 2024 #orchid #dailyorchid

@CheshireWT Appalling that a Local Wildlife Site should be threatened in this way. The planning system is facilitating destruction of the natural world. Wildlife doesn’t stand a chance.

Researchers from @sheffielduni visited nearly 6,000 houses across 42 developments , and this is what they found . Read the summary and/or full version here: wildjustice.org.uk/general/lost-n…

On a day when house building is in the news, we publish a new report - LOST NATURE. In it, we asked if housing developers have been delivering their ecological commitments. Answer: NO. Read the report here: wildjustice.org.uk/general/lost-n… 1/8

Thank you Wild Justice for commissioning this important report. amp.theguardian.com/environment/20…

Working paper from government on planning. gov.uk/government/pub…

Tell the government what you think in answer to the questions posed. We @CommunityPlann1 will... (That said, I can't see an email address or survey form here) Planning Reform Working Paper: Planning Committees gov.uk/government/pub…

@ProfBillMcGuire @UKLabour @AngelaRayner Angela Raynor really should know that newts do not hold up development. What about District licensing schemes?

@ffswhy @paulpowlesland At Betteshanger the developer was able to remove ponds where great crested newts were present because he agreed to pay into a district licensing scheme. Even are rarest and most vulnerable species are not protected under the planning system.

@paulpowlesland Developers can pay a substantial sum of money to circumnavigate newt issues. Guy on youtube who built a fishing lake banged on about it.

It is no coincidence that bats & newts are receiving flack for supposedly stopping infrastructure, house building & other development. These are some of the only wildlife which has substantive protections, both on the creatures themselves & their habitat. Most other parts of Nature have often worthless procedural protections that can be overridden with the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen, so that we don’t even usually register their loss. It is usually felt as a mere absence of the vitality, diversity & amount of Nature that people would once have taken for granted, if it is registered at all. It is more than possible to build the housing & infrastructure that Britain needs whilst also protecting & restoring the Nature which also calls these islands home. However, to do so will take thoughtfulness, imagination & effort, qualities which seem in short supply from a government seemingly determined to whack up buildings & lay down concrete without considering the effect on the already damaged & denuded natural world in Britain.

@paulpowlesland Great crested newts don’t hold up development even though they are a protected species. Developers can remove newts and their habitat if they pay into a District Licensing scheme for recreation of newt habitat elsewhere.

The latest from Angela Raynor. Bitterly disappointing that the Labour Party appears to be taking an anti wildlife stance when it comes to development. amp.theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

The Prime Minister was wrong to blame nature protection & regulators for stopping development🏡 Read our joint letter to @Keir_Starmer calling for an urgent meeting to discuss how #nature & sustainable development can go hand-in-hand👇 wcl.org.uk/docs/2024/lett… 📷Cassie Crocker