- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
That sort of thing needs publicity. You can't blame the land owner for doing it but it's a major unintended consequence of the mess that is currently proposed.I know of one rough grass field that has been neglected for 30 odd years, occasionally seen sheep, suddenly this year It has beet in it, totally sterile seed bed..... and planning is going in next year. THat 20 acres will reqeuire sweet FA offset - infact as theirs hardly any hedges they could probably do 0.5ac within the site and have an offset ratio of 50 to 1....
This is a massive (maybe intentional? ) weakness in the adopted system: the offset doesn't have to replace what's lost, only to deliver equivalent points under DEFRAs metric (which is very crude). Some sites are ecologically irreplaceable and need recognising for that.It needs to be close enough to a development to be part of the same "Biosphere" but at the same time needs to be far enough out not to encroach on future development chances.... so basically like a halo around the big cities.
Also - the offset is to replace , IE offset the loss of biodiversity in the development.