Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) are subject specific documents that can be adopted by Local Planning Authorities to become part of the decision-making process when planning applications are being determined. SPDs cannot require developers to do something they are not already obliged to do via national policy or the Local Plan, but they can strongly steer what is expected of them to help meet broader policy requirements.
Developers already have a legal requirement to protect and enhance biodiversity. The new draft Hedgehog Recovery SPD, thought to be the only one of its kind in the country, proposes the measures developers can reasonably undertake to help support this endearing species. If designed well, urban environments can prove to be a highly effective place for hedgehogs to thrive, with a good food supply such as worms, slugs and invertebrates in gardens and safety from natural predators such as badgers.
Back in the summer of 2023 the Council held a public vote with residents of East Cambridgeshire deciding that hedgehogs were the species most in need of our support and it is easy to see why. Hedgehogs, which have survived on our planet for millions of years, are in sharp decline – numbers are down by 70% in 20 years and there are thought to be less than one million hedgehogs left in the UK. The East of England is doing particularly badly, being amongst the worst areas for hedgehog decline.
The new SPD is part of a series of activities and initiatives East Cambs District Council is undertaking to support recovery of hedgehog numbers in our district, including the “I’ve Seen Prickles” hedgehog spotting campaign.
The draft Hedgehog Recovery SPD is set to go out to public consultation in May.
The Council has also been overseeing the planting of 75 oak trees across 20 locations in the district. The trees have been donated by the Council as part of its celebrations of King Charles III’s coronation and 75th birthday.
Oak trees have always had a special place in the hearts of the British people. They have a long and rich past, embedded in literature, folk-law, the arts, and in the history of the Monarchy.
The Royal Oak became legendary when Charles II famously hid in one when escaping from the Roundheads. On his restoration to the throne in 1660 following the death of Oliver Cromwell, King Charles II declared 29th May to be a public holiday, known as Royal Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day, in an apparent reference to his success in having hidden in the oak tree at Boscobel House.
An oak tree at Hatfield House is famously called Queen Elizabeth, as it was whilst sitting under this tree that she became Queen.
Major Oak, thought to be anywhere between 800 and 1100 years old still stands in Sherwood Forest – it has endured through the age of the Vikings, the Battle of Hastings, Agincourt, Waterloo, Shakespeare, Henry VII, Dickens, Darwin, Newton, Chaucer, Cromwell, two World Wars and over 50 monarchs.
Parish Councils, schools, nurseries and landowners across East Cambridgeshire have been busy planting the 75 new oak overseers of history and we are hugely grateful for their enthusiasm and hard work.
