Development proposals within or likely to affect the nature conservation or geological interest of Sites of Special Scientific Interest will be subject to special scrutiny and will not be permitted unless:
6.8 The Plan area includes 34 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). These sites have been identified by English Nature and are the subject of a formal procedure of notification under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. As such, they represent sites important for nature conservation defined on the basis of national criteria and are identified as sites of national importance in PPG 9. They include a wide variety of sites of different types from large areas of salt marsh on the Solway, to Pennine moorland and small sites with some specific interest, such as geology. Section 28G of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) places on Local Authorities a duty to takereasonable steps to conserve and enhance the flora, fauna, geological orphysiographical features of SSSI in the course of exercising their functions.
6.9 Development will only be permitted if the need for the development clearly outweighs the nature conservation interest of the site, or the development can be subject to conditions or obligations that will prevent damaging impacts on wildlife habitats or important physical features. Potential detrimental effects could arise in a number of different ways, either through the destruction of important features, or indirectly by, for example, introducing large numbers of visitors to a sensitive site.
6.10 The Government Public Sector Agreement target for SSSI is that there should be no loss in area of SSSI and that 95% of SSSI areas are maintained in or are recovering towards favourable condition before 2010. Other indicators include the populations of wild birds in the region, and the enhancement of the north west region’s biodiversity resources. Targets for these indicators are to maintain an upward trend in all bird numbers, to reverse the long term decline in farmland birds, and to deliver the North West Region’s biodiversity targets for priority habitats.
6.11 English Nature has undertaken work on a national series of 25 rivers in England to be notified as SSSIs. The River Eden has been designated as a SSSI because of the importance of its water quality, fishery and wildlife interest.
