LICHFIELD District Council has agreed to introduce new charges for developers to cover the cost of monitoring biodiversity contributions.
It follows a change int he law requiring all schemes to deliver at least a 10% biodiversity net gain.
To ensure compliance over time, the council must monitor these contributions for a minimum of 30 years — a process that requires significant officer time.
A report to cabinet members warned that not implementing a monitoring fee would be “detrimental” to the council’s finances, especially as the volume of cases is expected to rise in future years.
The charges are intended to cover the long-term cost of officer resources.
Cllr Alex Farrell, cabinet member for housing and the Local Plan, said:
“There’s usually a minimum period of 30 years to monitor biodiversity net gain habitats – as a result that’s quite an administrative burden on the council monitoring for that length of time.”
Depending on the size and technical complexity of a development, the monitoring fee could be as high as £19,397.24.
The council has five site categories ranging from very small – under one hectare – to large-scale sites of more than 30 hectares, which would require a bespoke fee to be agreed with the developer.