Codicote Neighbourhood Plan 2024 - 2031 Submission

8 Natural Environment Policies Comment

8.1 Natural Environment Objectives

8.1.1 The objectives relevant to this section are:

Objective 13 To ensure development design protects the flow rate and health of the River Mimram (chalk stream).

Objective 14 To ensure development design retains existing hedgerows and established trees, enhances green corridors and wildlife habitats, to increase biodiversity and retain their amenity value.

Objective 15 To ensure development design enhances landscape features, minimises the impact on existing vistas and opens new vistas to the countryside.

Objective 16 To minimise vulnerability and improve resilience to climate change and its impacts.

8.2 Landscape Character and Cherished Views

8.2.1 The rolling Hertfordshire countryside in which the parish of Codicote sits is the result of the effects of ice on the underlying chalk bedrock, eroding material as it advanced and leaving material deposits as it retreated. The signs of this activity over thousands of years are still clearly visible today; clay with flints in the fields, sand and gravel deposits which form the heaths at Codicote Heath, Rabley Heath and Potters Heath, and not least the course of the River Mimram which now meanders its way gently through the parish from the north-west to south-east.

8.2.2 North Herts Landscape Study (Character, Sensitivity and Capacity), was based on an earlier HCC study but added sensitivity and capacity to the evaluation of the landscape and added guidelines on built development. The Neighbourhood Plan area is covered by several sub-areas: 132 Codicote Bottom Arable Valley (north and south of the River Mimram), 133 Danesbury-Rabley Heath (stretching from the southern extent of the village, southwards along Codicote Road and north and east along Rabley Heath Road), and 205 Codicote Plateau (which encompasses the village and stretches right up to the northern boundary of the parish. The landscape assessments help to justify Policy COD 17.

8.2.3 Most of the Important Views identified on the Policies Map are located either in the village itself or in the rural area of the Codicote Plateau, except for V2 which is from the ford over the River Mimram where it is crossed by unmetalled Public Right of Way (PROW) UCR2. An extract of the Landscape Study is included in the Neighbourhood Plan at Appendix H.

8.2.4 Seven Key Views are identified in the Codicote Conservation Area Character Statement (KV1 to KV7). Views like KV1, KV3 and KV4 have been identified as Important Views in this Neighbourhood Plan.

8.2.5 Both the natural and historic landscape contribute to the special character of Codicote. The protection of Important Views will help to maintain the aesthetic appeal of the village and its surroundings.

8.2.6 Important Views listed in Policy COD 17 must not be affected by new development. Detailed descriptions explaining why each Important View is special, photographs of each Important View, and a map showing the approximate width and depth of the views can be found in Appendix I and Appendix J.

8.3 Biodiversity and Wildlife

8.3.1 With the exception of the heaths and discreet pockets of woodland, most of the countryside surrounding Codicote is farmed.

8.3.2 A survey of the older trees around the parish of Codicote was carried out in the early 1990's and again in 2003. Many of the woods around Codicote are old coppice woods with recent new growth on top of the old original wood. There are however many trees in the grounds of the Node which were planted in the early 1800's. In the churchyard there are some old yews and a magnificent copper beech. The oldest trees Codicote village are the oaks to be found in the grounds of Codicote House adjacent to the path leading from the North Lodge. These are pollarded oaks of 500 years of age. Node Wood is designated ancient woodland plantation on an ancient woodland site.

8.3.3 Small parts of three Local Nature Reserves (LNR) lie within Codicote Parish: Singlers Marsh, Danesbury Park and Mardley Heath. The larger part of each of these LNRs are in Welwyn Hartfield Borough and are managed by the Borough Council. All three have management plans and are managed for biodiversity and ecological benefit and receive either woodland grant or Higher Level Stewardship Government funding.

8.3.4 There are 19 Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) in or partially within the Neighbourhood Plan area. These are non-statutory sites designated at county level as being of conservation importance. The aim of identifying these sites is to protect them from land management changes, which may lessen their nature conservation interest, and to encourage sensitive management. A summary of the LWS can be found in Appendix M.

8.3.5 Ponds have featured significantly in and around Codicote over the years. In the 1950's there were around 25 ponds in the parish, ranging from roadside drainage ponds to large farm ponds. One of the largest, and still in existence, is the pond at Rabley Heath Farm. However, Codicote started to lose its ponds in the 1960's when new housing was built in Cowards Lane and Poynders Meadow. The trend continued through the 1970's with the closing of Bury Farm, Hill Hall Farm, and Tithe Farm. Still in existence is the Old Village Pond now in the grounds of Pond Court. Its appearance has changed considerably from the rural village pond it once was to an ornamental feature. There are still some 15 ponds in Codicote.

8.3.6 There is much evidence of the historic use of hedgerow boundaries around Codicote a number of which still exist today. Coppicing as opposed to the less effective and more time consuming layering technique was primarily practiced in Codicote where the land was and is predominantly arable and hedges were not so much required as stock barriers but as boundary markers. Hedgerow trees were an important part of a hedge providing useful timber and many of these are still visible today with a line of ancient tress marking the site of a grubbed out hedge. Despite the rapid spread of Dutch Elm disease in the 60's and 70's, elm persists as a hedgerow shrub where the diameter of the stem is too small for the elm bark beetle, carrying the fungus, to bore.

8.3.7 Oak has succeeded elm as the most prominent hedgerow tree as well as Holly and Hawthorn. The existence of such species as the Wayfaring tree (Viburnam Lantana) and Spindle indicate a hedgerow of considerable age since these and Woodland Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata) were originally taken from the surrounding woods back in medieval times. Nowadays the Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is most widely used as hedging. Elderberry, ash, rose and blackthorn can also be found in hedgerows around Codicote, but these are strong colonisers and do not therefore signify age. Hedgerows make excellent green corridors for wildlife and form important sections of Wildlife Corridors identified in this Neighbourhood Plan.

8.3.8 The Hertfordshire Ecological Network Mapping, prepared for the Neighbourhood Plan by Hertfordshire Environmental Records Centre (see Appendix N), is referenced in Policy COD 18. It gives a unique insight into existing and potential habitat networks. This habitat inventory helps to provide a strategic approach to ensure efforts to conserve and enhance biodiversity where most benefit can be gained. If maps are required at a larger scale, please contact HERC directly. This information if of a general nature and any specific habitat or other environmental designations such as Ancient Woodland, take precedence.

8.3.9 Development should conserve and enhance biodiversity and deliver a net biodiversity gain, calculated using the Statutory Metric.

8.4 Wildlife Corridors

8.4.1 Green Infrastructure is defined as a network of multi-functional open spaces including protected sites, nature reserves, formal parks, gardens, woodlands, green corridors, waterways, street trees and open countryside. North Hertfordshire District Green Infrastructure Plan, Land Use Consultants (2009), collected data for green corridors over 2 ha in size, most of which were in urban areas. The Green Infrastructure Plan was updated in the North Hertfordshire Open Space Review & Standards (2016). Green corridors were categorised in this document as for walking, cycling or horse riding, whether for leisure purposes or travel, and opportunities for wildlife migration.

8.4.2 The purpose of the Wildlife Corridors Policy in this Neighbourhood Plan is primarily to provide links between habitat for wildlife. These may in some instances double as leisure routes. Four corridors have been identified:

• WC1 follows the River Mimram through a variety of Priority Habitats and three identified Local Wildlife Sites to the S extent of Heath Plantation
• WC2 follows on from Heath Plantation N across Codicote Bottom and through The Grove
• WC3 links the links The Node ancient woodland and other priority habitat sites to Knebworth Park Local Wildlife Site
• WC4 runs W to E along the River Mimram then NW through Catchpole Wood and Langston Wood Local Wildlife sites and on to Local Wildlife Sites of Hollards Farm Meadow and the Meadow NW of First Spring.

8.4.3 The River Mimram is a rare and Nationally important chalk stream typical of the chalk bedded stream/rivers found in the Chilterns. The relatively short stretch of the river running through Codicote Parish to the west of the village is a corridor for wildlife which also has a strategic recreational value as Bridleway 017 and is part of the Hertfordshire Way. The river then runs along the parish boundary until to the south of Codicote village it turns eastward. Its source is beyond Whitwell where the flow is supplied from springs nearby the watercress beds. Up until the Second World War the river was a very good trout stream and, earlier, there had been water mills at Whitwell, Knebworth, Kimpton, Codicote, Fulling Mill and Welwyn. However, these closed during the 1830/40's when the river level became very low.

8.4.4 In the 1960's parts of the river were widened and straightened to run alongside boundary hedges which caused the flow to drop, and the river began to silt-up and loose the gravel bed. Fortunately, over recent years the river environment has improved bringing with it an increase in wildlife and the reappearance of trout, pike and crayfish. Water Voles are also making their homes in the river banks as far as Kimpton Mill.

8.4.5 The River Mimram Catchment Partnership is part of the wider River Lea Catchment Partnership. It was formed in 2012 to improve the river for wildlife and people. It is hosted by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, who brought the partnership together.

8.4.6 A further initiative has been proposed by Tewin Parish Council and supported by Welwyn Parish Council, to achieve a Local Landscape Designation (LLD) for the Mimram Valley. A LLD is a non-statutory designation to help protect areas with locally appreciated scenic value and can provide an important defence against inappropriate development and provide the means to manage the area to conserve and enhance their beauty. Codicote Parish Council also support this initiative and the Policies COD17 and COD18 provide protections for the River Mimram corridor within the Parish.

8.4.7 The requirement in Policy COD18 for a 10m naturalised buffer zone in any development adjacent to the river, to protect and enhance the watercourse and provide access for flood defence maintenance, has been requested by the Environment Agency and appears in other 'made' Neighbourhood Plans. This requirement is particularly important to protect the River Mimram chalk stream through Codicote Parish.

Figure 15: River Mimram GC1

8.5 Traditional Orchards

8.5.1 Traditional orchards are a priority habitat under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Fruit trees are particularly good habitats for wildlife because they age relatively quickly and develop features such as dead wood and sap runs for beetle habitat and hollows and rot holes for nesting bats and homes for Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and Little Owls. Fruit tree blossom is an important source of nectar for pollinating insects. Features that often occur in orchards such as ponds and hedgerows provide habitat for frogs and newts as well as hedgehogs, voles and other mammals (reference: The Orchard Project).

Figure 16: Produce of Perry Orchard, Rabley Heath Road

8.5.2 Natural England has recorded six traditional orchards in Codicote (reference: Natural England's Priority Habitat Inventory). Of particular historic significance in Hertfordshire is the remains of the Perry Orchard on Rabley Heath Road (three distinct parts – see Policies Map). Below is a photograph of the produce of the orchard, taken in 2014. Two of these orchards have been identified as Non-designated Heritage Assets in this Neighbourhood Plan Policy COD 22. The Bury Lane orchard has also been designated as a Local Green Space in Policy COD 11.

8.5.3 Bury Lane Orchard is also known as Codicote Community Orchard. It is a 0.22ha mixed orchard on the edge of the village, planted in 1998 by local people under the guidance of Codicote Environmental Partnership and Codicote Parish Council, who own the land. The trees are mostly half-standards with some standards and some dwarf trees. Apples pears, cherries plums, gages, walnuts and cobnuts have been planted, many of local varieties including the apple Hitchin Pippin. A native mixed hedge was planted, the sward was reseeded with mixed grass and common wildflowers. Many birds including Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Kestrel and Grey and Red-Legged Partridge, mammals including stoat and muntjac, butterflies and insects have been seen.

8.5.4 Traditional orchards are of biodiversity value (see Policy COD 17 Biodiversity and Ecological Connectivity) and are also of heritage interest (see Policy COD 21 Non-designated Heritage Assets).

8.6 Resilience to Climate Change

8.6.1 HCC actively promote the approach that all Green Infrastructure (as referenced in the NPPF Annex 2 Glossary), should be resilient to climate change. Resilience can take a variety of forms. Planting trees and hedgerows beside footpaths and cycle routes can reduce flooding on those routes and provide shade. Planting climate resilient flora, which responds to shifts in climate can provide habitat for more effective species retention with more longevity on wildlife corridors and when improving wildlife sites and other nature areas. Nature based solutions to climate change resilience are the preferred method of dealing with flood alleviation, shading and cooling.