The Trust is objecting to the current proposals and urges North Somerset Council to re-think its approach.

North Somerset is facing unprecedented development pressures from housing development and associated major infrastructure. In the current proposal, more than a quarter of the identified housing capacity has been earmarked for Green Belt land, which poses a huge risk to nature’s recovery across the region.

Avon Wildlife Trust is working with communities, farmers, landowners, and partner organisations to secure nature’s recovery across the region. We believe that it is possible to have development in harmony with nature, but the draft North Somerset Local Plan does not currently meet this requirement.

The UK Government is currently failing spectacularly on its manifesto commitments to protect nature, and the housing quota for North Somerset is yet another setback and an undoubted challenge for the Council. However, the current proposals ignore the cumulative effects of development in key areas, and the significant net loss of Green Belt, and are in direct contravention of the National Planning Policy Framework.

One such site that will be affected is Weston Big Wood, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) managed by Avon Wildlife Trust. Under the current proposals, a development of 500 houses would be built within critically important buffer zones that were put in place to protect it. 

The ancient woodlands at Weston Big Wood have developed over centuries and are now amongst the most fragile and rare of all landscapes in the country. Their ecological importance cannot be overstated and once damaged they cannot be restored. 

The SSSI is currently in unfavourable declining condition, due to the pressure from the existing level of footfall, with biodiversity in the woodland and surrounding area already having been significantly reduced. 

Weston Big Wood is an integral part of the Gordano Valley nature reserve stretching from the Severn estuary, through Portbury Wharf Nature reserve, along the Gordano Valley to the Somerset Levels and Mendips and is of national strategic environmental importance. Degrading it further by additional development will result in the loss of a key part of the Gordano Valley environment and impact negatively on the wildlife, flora and ecology of the whole Gordano Valley. 

For nature to recover and flourish in North Somerset, it is critically important that the connectivity of ecological networks is at least maintained but steps are also taken to improve it.

Section 40 of Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 places a duty on public bodies to contribute to the coherence and resilience of ecological networks.  Avon Wildlife Trust is concerned that some of the allocations currently set out in the draft plan will adversely affect this coherence and resilience of valuable ecological networks in North Somerset. 

We also believe some of the proposals undermine the principles of the North Somerset Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), which establishes priorities and specific actions to drive nature’s recovery and provide wider environmental benefits within the region - requirements set out by Government in the Environment Act 2021.​ 

As it stands, the Plan presents a significant threat to the essential connections between international, national, and locally designated sites, and will bring about the irreversible loss of wildlife corridors and stepping stones that connect these sites. 

The North Somerset Local Plan consultation runs until Friday 12th December

Respond to the consultation

For more information, email communications@avonwildlifetrust.org.uk