Policy information sourced from the Watford Local Plan 2021-2038.

NE9.1: The Natural Environment

The Local Plan will support the conservation and enhancement of the natural and local environment. Development proposals will be required to demonstrate a positive impact on Watford’s natural environment by:

  • Protecting and enhancing Watford’s natural and environmental assets and seeking to create new environmental features where possible;
  • Conserving and enhancing the extent and quality of green infrastructure and ecological networks by seeking to create, expand and restore links within the network, and support the wider benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services at a landscape scale where appropriate;
  • Ensuring all development minimises impacts on biodiversity and achieves a measurable biodiversity net gain, following the ‘Mitigation Hierarchy’ of avoidance, mitigation or compensation;
  • Maximising the role of watercourses for leisure, recreation and active travel purposes, as well as seeking to enhance their water quality and biodiversity value, as required under the Water Framework Directive;
  • Reducing the risk of flooding, including surface water flood risk;
  • Bettering access to open space across the borough where there is an identified need and delivering new green spaces as part of new development;
  • Delivering non-traditional forms of urban greening as part of high density development, as well as traditional open space, including green roofs and walls;
  • Improving the quality of Watford’s existing open spaces through development contributions;
  • Ensuring that protected species and their habitats are a material consideration when determining planning applications;
  • Protecting trees and encouraging native planting on new development; and
  • Considering the cumulative impacts of development on green and blue infrastructure.

Where the natural environment has not been appropriately assessed and considered with an application, planning permission will be refused.

For more information, please see the Watford Local Plan 2021-2038.