Since the European Court of Justice ‘Dutch Case’ ruling, planning consents in the River Wye are limited based on their phosphate (P) loading to the river.

Herefordshire Council (HC) initially contracted Ricardo as a consultant on P budgets. They produced an Interim Phosphate Delivery Plan and provided an approach to calculate P budgets through a calculator, which is used for the wetland credit system by developers.

For HC’s Integrated Constructed Wetlands project, wetland sites are built adjacent to sewage treatment works to lower the P levels released into the river generating P credits that can be traded with developers. However, currently HC is lacking a policy framework for the allocation of P credits for development that meets HC’s strategic goals.

Ricardo have known expertise and experience in the field, and as they have previously worked with HC in creating the phosphate calculator (a key feature in the credit allocation system) they already have a knowledge background in regards to HC’s Integrated Constructed Wetlands project.

They will provide HC with a working set of criteria and draft policy documents for use in scoring planning applications across the key areas of environment, community and economy. This framework will be used to allocate P credits to developers. The framework is needed as current demand for P credits by developers outstrips supply and HC does not have a policy framework in place to enable them to exchange the credits.

This decision is necessary as without a framework to allocate credits development will be on hold and HC will not be able to meet LEP grant requirements. It could also lead to further substantial loss of expenditure and have a negative effect on economic growth.