Delivering a 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) onsite can be a significant challenge, especially when balancing the needs of the development against sufficient habitat provision in order to achieve the required units.
Urban Green’s work on the recently approved Hawley’s Lane project in Warrington demonstrates how close collaboration between the BNG and landscape architecture teams can overcome this challenge and enable the project to satisfy both the design and BNG requirements onsite. Throughout the project, as the landscape design evolved, different scenarios and amendments were discussed between teams, and the Biodiversity Metric was quickly and flexibly amended to gauge the impact of these changes. This allowed both teams to rapidly assess the impacts of design changes and make informed alterations to achieve the required outcome for BNG, whilst retaining the desired function of a large logistical/industrial site.
The ability to communicate quickly and adapt the landscape designs and metric in response to various requirements was crucial to achieving a 10% net gain in area, hedgerow and watercourse habitats, and in satisfying the trading rules. The BNG team were able to provide swift recommendations which the landscape architecture team could then explore for practical incorporation into the design; all while addressing client needs, and responding to constraints associated with the existing site.
A specific example of this collaborative work relates to the Ballam Brook located to the east of the site where an appropriate buffer of natural habitat was incorporated into the design alongside the existing watercourse. This enabled the condition of the watercourse habitat to be enhanced, despite proximity to the development, therefore supporting the Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy and ultimately contributing to a 10% net gain in watercourse habitats.
Hawley’s Lane is a great example of how bringing BNG and landscape architecture together from the outset can help overcome the challenges of delivering BNG onsite, whilst still meeting the design requirements of space hungry logistical/industrial developments such as this, creating better outcomes across all disciplines and the client.
At Urban Green, having a multidisciplinary team allows us to work seamlessly, addressing risks and issues swiftly, and proactively producing quality deliverables collaboratively to reduce timescales.