This is a handbook and I think it will be a very useful handbook for local authority planners and ecologists who want to do a good job for nature. It is not a book to read for pleasure but that’s simply because it’s a book to read for information and knowledge. For example, Chapter 5’s 118 pages are made up of seven pages of clear introductory text followed by 111 pages of 16 Tables – but they look to me to be the Tables that will lead you to better understanding and action.
The planning system is important but, and here’s the rub, complicated. You don’t just tip up to work in a planning department and hit the ground running, you need to learn the job. This book is an educational aid to new planners and experienced planners alike, to local authority ecologists (a declined and endangered species themselves) about what the law says and how to stay on the right side of it.
There is an army of ecological consultants doing surveys and providing reports for developers and the system is not yet good enough at pulling them up short and saying ‘no!’. That’s because there is plenty of pressure to say ‘yes’ and very few friends to be made in saying ‘no’, or even ‘yes, but…’. Maybe this book will stiffen a few sinews and provide a little more backbone – I’m sure the author would like it to have that impact.
The cover? It’s OK, and it’s perfectly OK for a handbook. This is a working book which should get creased, dog-eared and bent with us. I’d give it 7/10.
Protected Species and Biodiversity: a guide for planners and ecologists by Tim Reed is published by Pelagic.
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“…creased, dog-eared and bent with us”? Speak for yourself, Dr Avery!