Policy information sourced from the Grove Park Neighbourhood Plan

GI4 Green Infrastructure-led Development

  1. Where appropriate, new development will be required to make a positive contribution to the quality and greening of the public realm and existing green space network through biodiverse green infrastructure-led development proposals to achieve ecological connectivity and multi-functional green spaces that serve different recreational, wildlife and wider ecosystem service functions (such as alleviation of heat island effect, sustainable drainage, carbon sinks, air quality improvements, etc). Green Infrastructure should be prioritised along identified key routes.
  2. Green Infrastructure should be planned and designed in accordance with the following design principles:
    1. Emphasis on the ecological connectivity between wildlife areas and green spaces to achieve biodiversity net-gain.
    2. Creative incorporation of biodiverse multi-functional green infrastructure provision (such as green roofs, green walls, trees, shrub, hedges, swales, rain gardens) to achieve environmental net-gain.
    3. Appropriate selection and design of green infrastructure achieving climate adaptation and enhanced ecosystem services, in line with Policies SE1-SE3 (such as trees, hedges and grasses in the right place to combat air quality, manage storm-water runoff, city cooling, etc directly)
    4. Contribute to sustainable urban drainage (SuDs) systems, especially in areas within or adjacent to flood risk zones through the use of permeable paving on any public footpath or front garden area to help alleviate surface water flooding or any other appropriate scale SuD solution.
    5. Install, where appropriate arboricultural barriers between highways and pedestrian areas and/or tree and shrub planting as a means of slowing down the traffic through the neighbourhood centre and creating air quality buffers.
    6. Ensure the right tree is planted in the right place, in line with Best Practice Guidance.
    7. New green infrastructure should be accompanied by a management plan which outlines how the open space will be maintained and managed, where appropriate in agreement with local stakeholders.
  3. Where garden space is incorporated into schemes (either private or communal), covenants to prevent the hard landscaping of these sites and the use of impermeable surfaces should be considered.

For more information and policy context please see the Grove Park Neighbourhood Plan