Thanet Labour’s Biodiversity Bull***t. Greens Missed Opportunity

The discussion about Thanet’s biodiversity policy at the Cabinet meeting on 18 September was a missed opportunity for Green councillors to expose Labour’s deeply flawed, pro developer, approach and set out instead a radical and sustainable  alternative a drawing  a clear dividing  line against Labour’s weak, unambitious, plan.

But instead of holding the administration's feet to the fire, and showing what genuine environmentalism really means, Green councillors acted like sycophantic cheerleaders for a strategy of performative greenwashing that kowtows to greedy land developers and presides over the systematic destruction of Thanet’s countryside.

Greenfield Destruction: The Real Planning Record

No biodiversity strategy can be taken seriously, let alone be supported, as Green councillors did, when according to a Freedom of Information I submitted, the council’s own housing completions record expose a relentless war on open spaces:

2019/20: 174 dwellings built on greenfield land (42.03% of total completions).

2020/21: 187 dwellings built on greenfield land (34.63%).

2021/22: 192 dwellings built on greenfield land (35.04%).

2022/23: 408 dwellings built on greenfield land (66.13%).

2023/24: 571 dwellings built on greenfield land (67.65%).

2024/25: 589 dwellings built on greenfield land (69.46%).

In just five years, greenfield building has skyrocketed from 35% to nearly 70% of all housing development in Thanet. While brownfield regeneration stagnates, hundreds of hectares of open fields, farmland, and wildlife habitats are concreted over each year. Pledging to "restore nature" with glossy brochures while approving nearly 600 homes a year on agricultural soil is blatant institutional hypocrisy which genuine environmentalist should never support.

Exploitation of Volunteers: Undermining Public Services

Labour's strategy masks chronic municipal austerity by passing statutory duties onto unpaid community goodwill. The document openly leans on volunteer groups, schools, and "citizen science" to clean beaches, plant woodlands, and carry out site audits.

This approach directly breaches core Green Party policy and the Green Workers' Charter, which strictly forbids the substitution and replacement of paid local government staff by volunteers. Essential statutory functions—such as enforcing planning compliance, monitoring 30-year habitat agreements, and ecological conservation—must be carried out by directly employed, unionized Council Officers, Environmental Wardens, and Land Stewards. Community volunteering should provide social enrichment and learning opportunities,  not serve as a cost-free labour pool to bail out a council that underfunds basic environmental protection.

The Illusion of Offsetting: A Licence to Trash Habitats

The council's approach relies heavily on the statutory 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirement and marketised "habitat banking". Many Green party members, including myself, see this scheme for what it really is - an unenforceable ecological scam that reduces complex, irreplaceable ecosystems to arbitrary units on a developer's spreadsheet. Just like the totally discredited Carbon offsetting scheme that preceded it.

The Mitigation Hierarchy Abandoned

Rather than enforcing outright avoidance of harm, the policy turns offsetting into an escape hatch, allowing developers to destroy mature on-site nature in exchange for purchasing paper promises elsewhere.

Subordinated to Developer Viability: Section 3.16 explicitly concedes that any "nature-first" mandates remain subject to "viability testing". By design, developer profit margins and national housing algorithms are allowed to override ecological survival.

Passivity on Destructive Mega-Infrastructure: Faced with existential threats to sensitive Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) at Minster Marshes and Pegwell Bay from National Grid’s converter project, the strategy promises only to "review and comment" on developer assessments (Section 3.17) rather than utilizing local planning powers to stop the destruction outright.

No Measurable Targets or Teeth: The RSPB, CPRE Kent, and local wildlife groups identified that the strategy is devoid of costed delivery plans, measurable baselines for declining farmland birds (like the Skylark and Corn Bunting), or enforceable penalties for non-compliance.

Thanet does not need another toothless framework designed to rubber-stamp the status quo. The Green Party must reject this compromised strategy and demand an immediate freeze on greenfield allocations, an end to viability exemptions, mandatory council-funded conservation posts, and absolute protection for our remaining natural spaces.