Green Infrastructure Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

Draft Green Infrastructure Supplementary Planning Document

The closing date for us to receive comments and feedback on this was Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) was Thursday 24 August 2017. The representations received will be reported to the Council’s Policy and Resources Committee so that they can be taken into account when the final version of the SPD is being considered for adoption later this year.

Overview

The Council has consulted on a Draft Green Infrastructure Supplementary Planning Document. The term Green Infrastructure refers to all the green and blue spaces around our towns and cities. Green spaces are hedgerows, woodlands areas, orchards and natural grasslands. Blue areas link to water related environmental spaces. Once adopted, this document will be used to give guidance when deciding planning applications. It will also be used to inform the Green Infrastructure policies included within the Barnet Local Plan.

The draft SPD provides a clear vision for delivering a range of benefits including:

• enhancing the physical and mental health of residents
• making Barnet a better place to live, work, invest, learn and play
• joining communities together by creating new green links between different parts of the borough
• preparing for the impacts of climate change by controlling flooding, reducing pollution and moderating temperatures
• protecting and enhancing the borough’s trees and their contribution to cultural and natural heritage.

Once adopted by the Council the Green Infrastructure SPD will supplement the existing green infrastructure policies in the Local Plan and be capable of being a material consideration when determining planning applications.