Cheshire Wildlife Trust

Saltersford Farm is Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s newest nature reserve, located in Holmes Chapel on the banks of the River Dane. It is a former agricultural site comprising 19ha of cropland and modified grassland alongside some existing priority and ancient woodland habitat. The site is strategically located within the Cheshire East Ecological Network and is immediately adjacent to a Local Wildlife Site and additional ancient woodland.

The site was identified as a strategic acquisition that could be used to pilot the creation and ongoing management of a new nature reserve using various sources of green finance. Using a blend of public and private finance the Trust purchased the site in 2021, restored and secured the long-term future of the land while demonstrating a viable blended finance model for land purchase, habitat creation and restoration.

The purchase was largely funded by an Esmee Fairbairn Foundation loan which was repaid in just under three years. As well as supplying off-site BNG units, additional funding came from woodland creation grants, district level licensing for great crested newts, agricultural payments and corporate sponsorship. The Trust took a bundled approach to funding each intervention across the site with no stacking of payments. Habitats created for BNG were funded solely by payments for BNG units to ensure additionality. BNG units were not sold from other interventions on the site like the woodland created for carbon offsets or the ponds created for district level licensing.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is an essential element of the Saltersford Farm business plan, with off-site unit sales driven through Cheshire East’s Local Plan BNG Policy. Through a land-banking approach to unit sales (creating the habitat to order) the Trust has generated approximately 47 BNG Units from 12 ha (60%) of the site. Units have been sold through five separate BNG deals, three of which are with private developers prior to planning permission being granted. The remaining two are with the Local Authority from planning applications already granted.

In addition to Saltersford Farm, Cheshire Wildlife Trust are also involved with other areas of BNG and provide services in:

1. Advice & advocacy

   1. Support for assessing BNG schemes
   2. Bespoke training on the use of the BNG metric according to the best practice principles
   3. BNG outcomes monitoring and reporting

2. Delivering off-site BNG on our land

   1. Using learning from Saltersford Farm to scale up their off-site BNG unit offer

3. Preparation of 3rd party land for BNG

   1. Surveys

      1. UK Habitat Classification
      2. River MoRPh
      3. Defra Condition Assessment

   2. Reporting

      1. On/Off-site BNG
      2. Net Gain Plans
      3. Habitat Management & Monitoring Plans

   3. Unit pricing / Financial Forecasting

   4. Land Management Services

      1. Initial Intervention
      2. Ongoing Management

   5. Monitoring