Written question WQ100265
- Asked by
- Art WrightReform
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 8 days
Question
How does the Welsh Government ensure that the role of the Gwent levels in providing compensatory habitat for the loss of the Taf/Ely Estuary SSSI is taken into account when considering development proposals in this area?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability (Llyr Gruffydd)
The role of the Gwent Levels in compensating for the loss of the Taff/Ely Estuary SSSI is taken into account principally through the continued protection and management of the Newport Wetlands compensation reserve, the statutory protection of the wider Gwent Levels SSSI’s and the wider Severn Estuary designations.
The Newport Wetlands compensation area remains a protected conservation site managed for the purposes for which it was created. It forms part of a wider network of designated habitats associated with the Severn Estuary and the Gwent Levels. Any development proposal affecting these areas would need to be assessed against the legal protections applying to the relevant SSSI, National Nature Reserve, Special Protection Area, Special Areas of Conservation or Ramsar interests.
Current Welsh planning policy recognises the Gwent Levels as a landscape of exceptional ecological importance. Future Wales: the National Plan 2040, identifies the levels as a National Natural Resource Area (NNRA) and requires planning decisions to safeguard and enhance its ecological networks and environmental functions. In addition, Planning Policy Wales establishes a presumption against development on SSSI’s that is not necessary for their management, across Wales.
Welsh public authorities, including Welsh Ministers and local planning authorities, are subject to biodiversity and ecosystem resilience duties under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 where they must seek to maintain and enhance biodiversity in the exercise of their functions and in so doing promote the resilience of ecosystems.