Nature and Planning

Nature and Planning

Given the importance of strategic planning and development management in both protecting and enhancing the natural capital of Sussex, the Nature Partnership works closely with local authorities. In August 2020, SxNP launched its Local Authority Network through which to link its work to all local authorities across East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove.

Current work in this theme is focused on assisting local authorities in understanding how to ‘future proof’ emerging local plans in relation to the Environment Act (and in particular, Local Nature Recovery Strategies and Biodiversity Net Gain, which will come on-track in the next two years).

When possible, SxNP also seeks to influence emerging national planning policy and will respond to relevant government consultations, often working through the South East Nature Partnership or its Local Authority Network to bring together a wide range of views.

Past work has focused on producing guidance for local and neighbourhood plans on how best to incorporate biodiversity and natural capital.  These will need to be updated to reflect the content of the Environment Act, but may still be useful and can be downloaded below.

Documents and Resources

SxNP Neighbourhood Plan Guidance

SxNP Local Plan Guidance (2014)

Planning White Paper_Response (Oct 2020)