Wildlife in the Urban Landscape

Essex as an Urban County

Looking at a map of Essex it is quite clear that the vast majority of the county is a rural landscape with concentrations of urban development in the south between Brentwood and Southend, along the Ml1 corridor on the western border, and around Chelmsford and Colchester.

The pattern seen today, however, is one that has seen radical change in the last 45 years since the Second World War. The periphery of London has undergone rapid expansion, spreading out through Havering and Epping, and then leapfrogging to the outer fringe of new towns at Harlow and Basildon. At the same time the older established towns in the county, Chelmsford, Southend and Colchester have all seen rapid growth, to the extent that it is estimated that Essex has seen a 4-fold increase in the area of urban and suburban development between 1945 and 1990.

More recently this increase has slowed as economic development has decreased, but there remain pockets of rapid development in the county, in particular along the Thames corridor, and the current county structure plan has a requirement for a further 250,000 houses to be built in the county.

Wildlife and the Urban Environment

Urban areas can hold a number of opportunities for wildlife. An aerial photograph of the older more established areas of inner towns and cities can be revealing in the volume of greenery that is present - vegetation that is a valuable source of cover and food for a range of wildlife, particularly birds.

Some of our native wild species are becoming increasingly adapted to urban and suburban conditions with foxes being particularly successful in this environment. Old canals, balancing ponds and ponds in domestic gardens offer areas of open water, while some of the larger parks and gardens provide a semi-woodland habitat that can hold woodpeckers, deer and a whole range of plants, fungi and invertebrates. Similarly there is a wide range of plants and animals that depend on the grass and scrubland habitats that survive along miles of roadside verges, railway cuttings and embankments that weave their way through our towns.

More often, however, most urban areas have less wildlife habitat than they could. There are two main reasons for this.

Modern housing and industrial developments place great emphasis on optimising the space on a site, with the result that housing is often very dense and the area set aside for open green space and gardens is kept to a minimum.

Where suitable habitat does exist it is often in very poor condition. With modern developments the shrubs, trees and grassland areas may be underdeveloped, but often in the older, established areas the sites are neglected, poorly managed or, as with grasslands, over managed through over-cutting. Pockets of open space are frequently infilled with housing rather than being retained as open green areas.

Many Sites of Importance to Nature Conservation (SINCs) have been identified within nearly all of the towns and urban areas of Essex. Some, such as the ancient woods around Southend and Thundersley are recognised and given protection, yet many more remain in a poor condition while others are constantly under the threat of being built on. In some cases these sites hold populations of locally and nationally rare or protected species, such as great crested newts, badgers and bats, while others have a unique type of habitat such as Grays Chalk Pit.

To encourage and promote better wildlife opportunities in our urban areas, better care needs to be taken of, and greater protection from development given to those sites that already exist. With new developments, more emphasis is required for the inclusion of wildlife features and open green areas.

Targets for 2000

• Increase the area of green space in urban areas in Essex by 50% and include provision for urban wildlife in future developments.
• Ensure the protection of all SSSIs, Local Nature Reserves and SINCs in urban areas and prevent any further loss.
• Maintain and improve management of existing wildlife sites in urban areas and secure the management control of existing unmanaged sites in urban areas.
• Identify and protect 'Wildlife Corridors' and interconnections between wildlife sites in urban areas.

Achieving the Urban Aims

Due to the nature of the urban landscape, many of the aims can only be achieved through better planning control within the county and local authorities. However, there are opportunities for private owners, small companies and urban developers to make changes that will benefit the Urban wildlife of our county.

• Include policies in all stages of county and local plans for the protection of sites identified as important for wildlife (SSSIs, SINCs and LNRs) from further development.
• Introduce Planning Policy Guidelines for Nature Conservation as part of the planning system in all county and local authorities.
• Identify and protect Wildlife Corridors in local plans to promote connections between these wildlife sites.
• Encourage the inclusion of environmental appraisals in all planning applications and encourage developers to take account of existing wildlife features and wherever appropriate carry outhabitat creation.
• Encourage owners of existing natural habitat areas to maintain and improve management of the sites through grants, advice and where possible the creation of local community groups.
• Increase the provision of wildlife corridors, underpasses and through routes in new developments.