I know this is a somewhat old thread but this infuriates me somewhat.
We've just had planning granted and had to write a biodiversity letter as part of our application. All around us, we see paved gardens and plastic lawns yet our renovation project was on hold until they were satisfied with the plants we were planning on planting.
The irony is, I'm desperate to keep bees, we are planning a pond, we're organic gardeners and hope to have a huge wildflower patch.
There definitely needs to be a change in policy whereby existing homes cannot rip up 'green belt' gardens to replace with plastic Astro turf!!!'