2 Planning Policy and Development control
2.07 Although management agreements provide the primary mechanisms for regulating land use in order to promote nature conservation, agricultural operations are also in some cases subjected to planning control.
The use of compulsion is reserved primarily for the control of agricultural operations in areas considered to be of national significance. Accordingly, stricter planning control is applied to agricultural land use within National Parks8 than would otherwise be the case, and similar controls apply where an area has been designated an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty under the 1949 Act.92.08 Local authorities have a number of other responsibilities in relation to the protection of biodiversity, and which are implemented through planning policy and development control. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 200010 required the Secretary of state to establish a list of wildlife habitats and species of principal importance for the conservation of biological diversity in England. The list was originally published by DEFRA in 2002 and comprises habitats and species identified as priorities for protection in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.11 Local authorities are required to include policies in their development plans to conserve these habitats and species,12 and development plans must also include policies encouraging the management of features of the landscape that are of major importance for wild flora and fauna.13 The implementation of these planning policies impact upon agricultural land use, as many of the habitats that planning policy seeks to protect for the future – lowland and upland heath land, and cereal field margins for example – are in practice managed for agriculture.