Print
Planning awards
A sustainable room with a view at RSPB Rainham Marshes
We have won a number of planning awards after turning old minerals sites into reedbeds for bitterns, and ex-Ministry of Defence land into a home for avocets and water voles.
The Needingworth Wetland Project (now known as Ouse Fen) won a national Royal Town Planning Institute award in 2000. We are working with Hanson Aggregates to create an exciting new nature reserve at Needingworth Quarry, between Huntingdon and Cambridge.
The project has been designed to create habitats of high value to wildlife and to incorporate 32 km of new public access. The 700-hectare wetland will include the biggest reedbed in the UK - some 460 hectares. It is being constructed in phases over the next 30 years in 20-40-hectare blocks divided by low earth banks.
Rainham Marshes nature reserve and environment and education centre was commended in the 2007 Royal Town Planning Institute awards. We bought the site (just over 350 hectares) from the Ministry of Defence in July 2000. Areas of wet grassland, marsh and open water are being maintained and created, supporting birds, scarce invertebrates and mammals such as the water vole.
Rainham Marshes acts as a flagship green space for the Thames Gateway and is a valued resource at the heart of the community, integrated with its surroundings. The centre is a model of sustainable development, built to very high environmental standards.
Our Minerals Restoration Potential Project won the E-government category in the 2008 Royal Town Planning Institute awards. This GIS-based project showed that there is huge potential for contributing to Biodiversity Action Plan targets by restoring former mineral sites. You can find more details on the Minerals planning page.
Northern Ireland
In 2007, we joined forces with the Royal Town Planning Institute to promote sustainable development through the Sustainable Planning Awards. The awards recognise developers and individuals who have followed a 'green' planning process from start to finish.
This year's winners of the RTPI/RSPB NI Sustainable Planning Awards have been announced - visit the awards page via the link on the bottom of the left-hand menu on this page to find out more.
The awards are a very practical way of not only recognising some of Northern Ireland’s most innovative developments, but also highlighting good practice, and showing what can be done with the right approach.
Last modified: 02 August 2010