Green Infrastructure Strategy

What is green infrastructure

Green infrastructure describes the networks of natural spaces and corridors across a given area. It can include a range of spaces from parks, playing fields and other open space to woodlands, allotments and street trees. It also includes 'blue infrastructure' like rivers, ponds and canals.   

Having a natural infrastructure is essential to helping people to live healthier, happier and more sustainable lives. It's also important to make sure these spaces are accessible to people and wildlife.   

Our strategy 

We adopted our Green Infrastructure Strategy in July 2022. It shows how we will work with others to protect and enhance the borough's green infrastructure and identifies 12 projects that we will work on over the next 10 years. 

Some of these projects cover the whole of Rushmoor, where we will work with others to research and identify new ways of identifying and/or enhancing our green infrastructure.  These are: 

• PP1 - An interactive green infrastructure map that will be available online for the public to view 
• PP2 – A development management green infrastructure toolkit – for use by planners and developers submitting planning applications that will identify green infrastructure and potential opportunities for developers to fund it 
• PP3 – A biodiversity net gain off-site compensation scoping project – anticipating the introduction of secondary legislation in the Environment Act, this project will identify if there is land within Rushmoor that could achieve biodiversity net gain for the long term and identify how we might work with neighbouring councils in situations where biodiversity net gain has to be delivered outside of Rushmoor 
• PP4 - Access to the outdoors information project – encouraging more people to use our green infrastructure 
• PP5 - Connecting Rushmoor’s ecological network – we will work with the county council to review the 2015 Ecological Network Map and opportunities that could form part of a future Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) 
• PP6 - Review of available Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspaces (SANG) Sites  - we will work with our neighbouring councils and Natural England to see if there are other SANG sites that could be provided to offset new residential development and protect the Thames Basin Heath  
• PP7 - Carbon reduction through tree planting feasibility project – to assess the types of trees that would be desirable in Aldershot and Farnborough to help create new woodlands. London local planning authorities are already having to require major new developments to secure 'carbon capture' including tree planting.  We will look at what these authorities are doing to respond to this new planning challenge. 

Our strategy also has 5 geographical projects. These are:

• GP1 - Southwood and Cove Brook Floodplain Enhancement Project 
• GP2 - Blackwater Valley Enhancement Project 
• GP3 - Enhancing the Basingstoke Canal Project 
• GP4 - Cove Brook Greenway Project 
• GP5 - Southwood/Bramshot SANG Network Project