Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies

Policy DLP51 Dudley Borough's Green Infrastructure Network

1. The Green Network constitutes Dudley Borough's strategic Green Infrastructure, and comprises the following designations shown on the Policies Map:
   1. Green Belt/Green Wedges
   2. Special Areas of Conservation (SAC)
   3. Linear Open Space areas
   4. areas of designated nature conservation and geological value including Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Local and National Nature Reserves (LNR/NNR), Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and Sites of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SLINC)
   5. Accessible Natural Greenspace
   6. other formal and informal open space areas
   7. Wildlife Corridors
   8. Existing or proposed linking areas of townscape or landscape
   9. Canals and watercourses particularly the River Stour and its tributaries
   10. Railway corridors
        
2. While certain sections of the Green Network will, depending on their inherent value or potential, have a focus on a particular open space/nature conservation aspect, overall, the network has a multi-functional role as:
   1. a wildlife corridor, to provide coherent ecological networks.
   2. accommodating pedestrian and cycle paths, particularly in linking the urban area with the Green Belt and open countryside as well as linking towns and places of employment with residential communities.
   3. providing opportunities for informal recreation.
   4. helping to form a break between locally distinct areas and centres.
   5. grazing land for horses and other livestock.
   6. a means of maintaining the integrity of water courses across the borough as well as enhancing the natural value and restoration of water courses including de-culverting where opportunities arise.
       
3. All development proposals except householder applications, falling within or adjoining, the Green Network need to demonstrate how the proposal:
   1. complies with the aims and role of the Green Network.
   2. enhances or adds value to the Green Network, particularly in providing green infrastructure which would strengthen the network or greening sections of the network where such infrastructure is absent.
   3. shall have a design and layout which would complement and enhance the intended functions of the network. This includes strengthening and supporting existing wildlife corridors through habitat creation and restoration and providing opportunities for outdoor recreation, such as walking and cycling to promote healthy lifestyles and provide an alternative to help reduce congestion and improve air quality throughout the borough.
       
4. The Green Network shall have a minimum width of 15 metres unless it is satisfactorily demonstrated to be unachievable. Any proposed development which has the effect of narrowing the corridor below this threshold will not normally be supported.
    
5. Wherever possible, all sections of the Green Network shall seek to accommodate a footpath and cycleway which, when combined, shall be no less than 3.3 metres in width. The layout and route of such paths will be influenced by the nature of the network particularly to avoid any undesirable impact on habitats however the requirement will be to achieve a coherent, linked network of paths and cycleways.
    
6. Where existing townscape forms part of the Green Network and it is satisfactorily demonstrated that there are limited opportunities to provide a linking area of open space, Dudley Council will seek alternative means of providing continuous green linkages within developments, for example, through the provision of green roofs and green walls, street trees and boulevards. Any provision should not prejudice the character and distinctiveness of the local environment.

Policy DLP52 The Borough's Geology

1. The Council will seek to safeguard and maximise the benefits of the borough's unique and internationally recognised geology by requiring development to prescribe to and apply the relevant guidelines contained within the Council's latest Nature Conservation Supplementary Planning Document with the priority on preventing harm to sites of recognised (or anticipated and subsequently demonstrated) geological importance or mitigating with appropriate remedial actions where agree.

2. Sites and connectivity particularly referred to by this policy includes:
   1. National and Local Nature reserves with unique/ nationally important geological heritage (NNRs LNRs)
   2. Sites of Special Scientific Importance (SSSIs)
   3. Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation identified with regionally important geological heritage (SINCs)
   4. Other important geological sites within the context of the Black Country UNESCO Global Geopark (See Policy DLP35) including Sites of Local Importance for Nature conservation (SLINCs) etc.
   5. Geological Consideration Zones (GCZ) – see appendix 3
       
3. Where consequential harm to geodiversity occurs as a result of a development, the level of improvement works needed to balance and or mitigate this will be assessed on a site-by-site basis.
    
4. Maintaining and enhancing the Borough's geology will be ensured by;
   1. Ensuring compliance with any existing site/feature management plans and ongoing processes.
   2. Encouraging the acquisition of new data via such things as permitting access for and encouraging on-site geological recording particularly where development creates new geological exposures (whether as temporary excavations or permanent landscape adjustments).
   3. The provision of new facilities and features associated with the management, display and interpretation of the geological resource including those which would contribute positively to Dudley Borough, or collectively along with the other Black Country Authorities, as part of the UNESCO Global Geopark delivery.

Policy DLP53 Parks

1. The Council will protect parks from inappropriate development that would jeopardise their existing and future role, function, and setting and is committed, in consultation with the local community, to maintain and, where possible, improve and upgrade them to a standard appropriate to their identified function.

The Leasowes - Historic Park:

2. The Leasowes will continue to be restored and maintained as far as possible to the original design and setting taking into account the needs for nature conservation. It is designated as Grade I on English Heritage's Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England which signifies that it is "of exceptional interest" (only 9% of 1600 Parks and Gardens on the Register are Grade I).

Community Parks

3. Community Parks (identified below) will be protected and appropriate works to improve their standard and amenity would be supported including their links to cycling and walking networks.
    
4. Community Parks for Dudley Borough are therefore listed below:

• Priory Park, Dudley - also recognised by English Heritage as a Grade II Registered Park and Garden
• Grange Park, Dudley
• Netherton Park
• Quarry Bank Park (Steven's Park)
• Sedgley Hall Farm Park
• Silver Jubilee Park, Coseley
• King George V Park, Wordsley
• King George VI Park, Kingswinford
• Marsh Park and Lawyers Field Brierley Hill
• Mary Steven's Park, Stourbridge
• Steven's Park, Wollescote
• Green Park, Kates Hill
• Buffery Park, Dudley
• Woodside Park, Dudley
• Dudley Wood Recreation Ground
• Milking Bank, Open Space
• Clayton Park, Coseley
• Vale Street Recreation Ground, Gornal
• Abbey Street Recreation Ground, Gornal
• The Straits Open Space, Sedgley
• Wall Heath and Enville Road, Wall Heath
• The Dell Recreation Ground, Brierley Hill
• Wollaston Recreation Ground
• Amblecote Recreation Ground
• Huntingtree Park, Halesowen
• Hurst Green Park, Halesoswen
• Highfield Park, Halesowen
• Homer Hill Park, Cradley

Policy DLP54 River Stour and its Tributaries

1. The Council will require all development proposals and other enhancement proposals, alongside or in close proximity to the River Stour and its tributaries to accord with the provisions of Policy DLP45 and through cross-boundary partnership working with neighbouring authorities, the Environment Agency and the Canals and Rivers Trust as appropriate.
    
2. The Council will also require works which;
   1. enable the restoration of the natural riverbank habitat and, as appropriate, create new habitats, and remove invasive plant species from the riverside environment
   2. enable the restoration of the in-channel habitat structure including the removal of culverts and improving the water quality of discharges into the watercourse
   3. seek to retain, or create, an area of Green Infrastructure either side of the River Stour channel and its tributaries, of at least 10 metres in width from each riverbank top, unless this can be satisfactorily demonstrated to be unfeasible or unviable or it is in conflict with other Local Plan policies.
   4. create a footway and cycleway of a combined width of 3.3 metres (minimum) within a landscaped setting along at least one side of the watercourse to link in with the wider network of paths and cycleways. Where these links are broken, new links shall be formed where possible, and the river bridges which support this network made structurally sound and legible as river crossings to enable connectivity within this network. In some instances, the Council will seek to require the provision of new river bridges.