Over 40 delegates representing 25 parishes and towns attended the first Local Nature Action Plan (LNAP) workshop organised by WALC and Warwickshire Coventry & Solihull’s Local Nature Partnership at the University of Warwick’s Stratford Innovation Campus near Wellesbourne.
The event was funded by Warwickshire County Council as part of community engagement leading to development of Warwickshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Find out more from LNRS | WCS LNP.
Delegates heard from Matthew Lipton, Biodiversity Assets & Commons Manager at South Gloucestershire Council; Daisy Finnear, Climate & Nature Officer to Frampton Cotterrell Parish Council, and Gina Rowe, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.
Matthew, a parish councillor himself, helped to develop the LNAP guidance which includes a field guide and a business action plan for nature. He explained, “it was designed to make it easy for our town and parish councils to take positive action in tackling the ecological crisis we are all facing.”
“It was designed in recognition of the lack of resources available to many of our town and parish councils – which we in the larger authorities take for granted – such as communications teams, designers, specialists etc. We wanted to be able to engage our town and parish councils with taking positive action, guiding them to using their resources to make positive changes for nature on their assets but also to teach them and mobilise them to engage with their residents and so add to and support the action we are taking for nature as a unitary authority.” Download the presentation “Delivering our Response to the Nature Emergency: LNAPs”
The presentations were followed by round table discussions on how to develop plans with Officers including Rosemary Collier, University of Warwick and South Warwickshire Area Network for Wildlife (SWAN) , Ben Hill, Warwickshire County Council Highways and Claudine Pearson, WALC’s Climate Officer. Warwickshire Wildlife Trust’s #TeamWilder helped to answer specific questions on plans to restore nature across the county.
Delegates were shown how to undertake a “nature audit” of council and community assets, mapping stakeholders and partners to inform a plan and identify opportunities for action.
“The event was amazing, a great opportunity to network with like minded parishes and get advice from another local authority sharing their best practice. For me, it was validating and so positive to hear what other parishes were also doing. Finally the nature plan template is a game changer as we have so many great ideas and putting it down is a plan will really help to keep us focused and get all our ideas in to one place in order to follow through”. Emma Hills, Community Champion, Upper Lighthorne
Warwickshire LNAP Draft Guidance for Town and Parish Councils is now available to download. A Word version of the LNAP is also available.
Local councils in England do not have to provide biodiversity reports as they do in Wales, but there is a choice of actions they can take in response to the biodiversity duty, up to and including a full Local Nature Action Plan. Download a Model Biodiversity Policy from the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC).
Since the launch of the S Glos LNAP in 2022, over half of the 47 town and parish councils in South Gloucestershire have developed and adopted an action plan for nature, based on the guidance. Bath & NE Somerset Council has adapted a version – encouraging town and parish councils to develop these in partnership with local expertise and community groups, to secure buy-in from as many people and organisations as possible.