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Response

Response to request for information

Reference

3561650

Response date

19 September 2024

Request

Specifically, I am requesting the following information, with data broken down by calendar month since 12 February 2024:

  1. The total number of planning applications received by your authority that were subject to the mandatory statutory biodiversity net gain (BNG) requirements. (For the avoidance of doubt, please include both applications received that claimed BNG applied to their development AND applications that claimed BNG did not apply on their site (i.e. they claimed an exemption)).
  2. The total number of planning applications that:
    1. Claimed to be exempt from BNG
    2. Of this number, please provide the number that:
      1. Claimed they were exempt from the BNG requirements under the householder exemption
      2. Claimed they were exempt from the BNG requirements under the de minimis exemption (developments impacting less than 25 square metres of habitat or 5 metres of linear habitat)
      3. Claimed they were exempt from the BNG requirements under the self-build and custom-build exemptions
      4. Claimed they were exempt from the BNG requirements under different criteria
  3. For the answer to 2b(ii), 2b(iii) and 2b(iv) please set out
    1. How many of these claims of exemption were accepted by the validation team
    2. Of this number, how many applications provided a complete statutory biodiversity metric sheet or Small Site Metric Sheet to demonstrate that they were genuinely entitled to an exemption

Response

The information requested is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act because it is reasonably accessible to you and the terms of the exemption mean that we do not have to consider whether or not it would be in the public interest for you to have the information

 

The information to which you have requested is available to view on our website by using the search function on our Planning Website - Simple Search (rushcliffe.gov.uk). You are then able to filter the applications you wish to locate by using the advanced search feature and inputting the date you refer to within your request. Once you have retrieved the relevant planning applications to which you require, the application form submitted with the application (found on the documents tab) provides you with the information and answers to your requested question 1 and 2 details. The documents tab will also provide you with the answer to your question 3 as if the document has been received, then this will be available to view on this tab with the consideration of the claims of exemption considered by the planning officer during the course of the application.

FOI Planning