Natural England advice for development proposals - Nutrient Neutrality
Last week Natural England released an update to those Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) whose areas include catchments where Natural England has already advised on how to assess the nutrient impacts of new development and mitigate adverse effects.
H2Ogeo provides hydrogeological assessments to understand nutrient mitigation potential Contact Us to find out more.
The Nutrient Neutrality Methodology enables a nutrient budget to be calculated for all types of development that would result in a net increase in population served by a wastewater system.
It is understood that 42 Council Authorities will be added to the existing 32 that currently operate nutrient neutrality rules.
Natural England advised that under the Habitats Regulations, the Competent Authority must carefully consider the nutrients impacts of any new plans and projects (including new development proposals) on habitats sites and whether those impacts may have an adverse effect on the integrity of a habitats site that requires mitigation, including through nutrient neutrality.
The purpose of that assessment is to avoid adverse effects occurring on habitats sites as a result of the nutrients released by those plans and projects.
The advice applies to the following types of habitats sites:
Special Protection Areas (SPA) designated under the Habitat Regulations 2017;
Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) designated under the Habitat Regulations 2017;
Sites designated under the Ramsar Convention, which as a matter of national policy are afforded the same protection as if they were designated under the Habitat Regulations 2017; and
Sites identified or required as compensatory measures for adverse effects on SPAs, SACs and Ramsar sites.
A plan or project will be relevant and have the potential to affect the water quality of the designated site where:
It creates a source of water pollution (e.g. discharge, surface run off, leaching to groundwater etc) of either a continuous or intermittent nature or has an impact on water quality (e.g. reduces dilution);
And
There is hydrological connectivity with the designated site i.e. it is within the relevant surface and/or groundwater catchment;
And
The designated sites interest features are sensitive to the water quality pollutant/impact from the plan/project.
The Nutrient Neutrality Methodology enables a nutrient budget to be calculated for all types of development that would result in a net increase in population served by a wastewater system. It covers all types of overnight accommodation including new homes, student accommodation, care homes, tourism attractions and tourist accommodation and permitted development (which gives rise to new overnight accommodation) under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
This advice also applies to planning applications at the reserved matters approval stage of the planning application process, and to applications for grants of prior approval and/or certificates of lawfulness for a proposed use or operation.
H2Ogeo provides technical consultancy on Nutrient Budgets and determining the hydraulic links between source and receptor. We provide hydrogeological appraisals of mitigation land to identify off-set opportunities within the catchment of sensitive receptors.
To find out more CONTACT US and to see a full list of Council’s affected click on the link below:
