Doncaster Council has approved plans to build its first habitat bank, to be located on the former Red House Farm, next door to Doncaster Racecourse.

The landscape team in our Sheffield office prepared the proposals for the scheme, with implementation due to commence in September.

The Environment Act comes into effect in November, mandating that new developments deliver 10% Biodiversity Net Gain. Where developments are unable to meet this on site, the habitat bank will enable them to deliver these improvements off-site.

The habitat bank will see a site of low biodiversity value enhanced to deliver a number of habitat types, including grassland, wetland, scrub and woodland. The new proposal provides an opportunity to buffer the adjacent mature woodlands and provide a much more structurally diverse habitat boundary to these designated sites than exists currently, with an ecotone from mature trees, through scrub habitats to grassland being created. The change in management of the adjacent site will result in an end to the application of chemical fertilizer thus mitigating this source of pollution.

Although this project is primarily focused on ecological benefits, the proposal also includes benefits to the local communities through the creation of new pathways and an orchard.

For more information on this, please email simon.lawton@fpcr.co.uk