FOI request (FOIR-565171076)

Biodiversity net gain

Requested Mon 27 November 2023
Responded  Fri 22 December 2023

I am writing to request information I am entitled to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I am requesting the following information:

1. Any policies and papers, from 1st Jan 2022 to 1st November 2023, stating the percentage of biodiversity net gain your council will require as a condition for planning permission (under the Environment Act 2021) (a) as part of an agreed Local Plan; or (b) as part of a draft Local Plan.

2. Any policies and papers, from 1st Jan 2019 to 1st November 2023, stating whether you have formally declared a nature/ecological emergency.

3. Any policies and papers, from 1st Jan 2022 to 1st November 2023, containing a target for your area to contribute to protect and manage 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.

4. On what date your current Local Plan will be five years old and when you expect a new Local Plan to be agreed.

Response

1. NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information requested is being refused under Section 22 - Information intended for future publication.

The information you have requested regarding any policies and papers, from 1st Jan 2022 to 1st November 2023, stating the percentage of biodiversity net gain your council will require as a condition for planning permission (under the Environment Act 2021) (a) as part of an agreed Local Plan are currently in draft form yet to be finalised. Once finalised they will be shared and placed in the public domain.

The exemption afforded by Section 22 is subject to what is known as the 'public interest test'.

When applying the test in a particular case a public authority is deciding whether the public interest is better served by non-disclosure than by disclosure.

Although the Freedom of Information Act does not define 'in the public interest', there is a presumption under Freedom of Information that openness is in the public interest. In applying the public interest test a public authority will take into account the distinction that has been often made by courts between things that are in the public interest, and things that merely interest the public.

Where applicants have not identified public interest considerations succinctly or accurately, the public authority has a responsibility under the Act to make their own assessment of the public interest considerations in the particular case.

We have identified the following public interest factors that may be seen as encouraging the disclosure of information:

a) accountability of public spending

We consider these factors to be of limited relevance in relation to the information in question.

Public interest factors seen as encouraging non-disclosure are, generally, the exemptions themselves.

In consideration of this matter we came to the following conclusions:

a) correspondence and communications are confidential

b) damage to reputation and/or financial interests

In weighing the factors for and against disclosure we have concluded that the likely benefit to the applicant and the wider public of disclosure is outweighed by the likely prejudice caused by such disclosure and that therefore the public interest is better served by non-disclosure. For the reasons given above we will not be communicating to you the information you have requested.

1(b). Please see draft Policy DP5 in the Regulation 18 consultation draft Local Plan:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/policy/new-local-plan/consultation/

2. Information not held. Hastings Borough Council has not officially declared a nature/ecology emergency.

3. Information not held.

4. The extant Local Plan was adopted in 2014 and is therefore over 5 years old. A new Local Plan is in development and a Regulation 19 Pre submission Draft Local Plan will be out for consultation in quarter 2 of 2024/25. Subject to the outcome of the Examination in Public and any further timetable changes, the a new Local Plan is expected to be adopted in early 2026.