October 2026

Salford City Council voted to green-light the Angela Swift Developments residential facility, which will sit on the site of the demolished St Joseph’s Convent. The 1.5-acre site sits on the corner of Greenleach Lane and Broad Oak Road in Worsley. The Victorian convent building that formerly occupied it was heavily damaged in a fire at

Landscape proposals are often judged on how a site looks on completion day. But the planting choices made at design stage decide how much life a site will support for decades to come. Native trees, hedgerows, shrubs and wildflower-rich grassland provide the food, shelter and breeding sites that our native insects, birds, bats and small

The North Yorkshire and York Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) was published in January 2026. It sets out local priorities for nature and includes a Local Habitat Map showing existing important sites and areas where new habitat could do the most good.  This matters for development. In the statutory biodiversity metric, habitat created or enhanced

One of the most common causes of planning delay is missing the ecology survey season. Many protected species surveys can only be done at certain times of year.  Bat emergence and re-entry surveys generally run from May to September, and great crested newt eDNA sampling runs from mid-April to the end of June. Miss these

The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 created a new route for developers to meet some environmental obligations: Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), funded through a Nature Restoration Levy. On 17 September 2026, Natural England opened consultation on the first draft EDP, which deals with nutrient pollution affecting protected habitats in Norfolk. The consultation closes on 27