Call for panel to protect environment from developers

MORE needs to be done to protect green spaces and wildlife from developers, claim two members of Birmingham’s planning committee.

Councillors Keith Linnecor (Lab, Oscott) and Martin Straker-Welds (Lab, Moseley and Kings Heath) have proposed a special environmental panel to lobby for environmental matters as planning applica- tions are submitted. They hope developers and architects would then give more consideration to wildlife and green spaces.

Cllr Linnecor said: “We do a lot of work to preserve historic buildings, we even have a special conservation panel to look after them. We are arguing for an environmental panel to also look after our green spaces and wildlife. We look after our past, but we now need to do more to protect the future. I want to ensure that future generations of Brummie kids know what a hedgehog is.”

He said that developers too often paid lip-service to the issue.

He said: “They offer to put a few bat boxes up or plant some shrubs and think they have done their bit for the environment, but we are demanding better quality and better standards. Instead we want to see developers come to us with creative ideas to preserve the city’s green spaces and wildlife. We want to see more thought put in.”

One suggestion is more focus on wildlife corridors, strips of green space to allow small creatures to move across new estates between parks. Cllr Linnecor believes waste ground under the elevated M6 motorway could be used for this.

The councillors are in talks with the council’s planning department to set up the panel with expert members, as well as elected councillors. Developers would be expected to pay for the measures.