Biodiversity gains for major Oxfordshire road project
Oxfordshire County Council needed a solution to help meet biodiversity planning requirements for a project to overhaul a key section of the A34. Environment Bank supported the delivery of this infrastructure upgrade by supplying the council with off-site Biodiversity Units well ahead of the project’s scheduled start date.
About the development project
The Lodge Hill Interchange development near Abingdon was set to involve improvements to an existing junction with new slip roads to both the north and southbound carriageways of the A34. This would increase capacity, facilitating new housing development and providing routes avoiding the centre of the town.
These changes would also reduce pollution, journey times, and congestion. Residents in the area would be able to benefit from improved lighting, wide footpaths and cycleways, larger bus stops, and multiple pedestrian crossings.
Drainage measures, ponds, and landscaping with vegetation and plants allowed the project to sustain a good level of biodiversity. However, additional Biodiversity Units were still required, leading Oxfordshire County Council, Balfour Beatty, and consultants at Ramboll, to contract Environment Bank to find an off-site solution and ensure as smooth a process as possible.
A complex project with a lot of moving parts was handled expertly by Environment Bank. Thanks to the team’s help, our project has met its biodiversity requirements well ahead of our scheduled start-date. It’s great to know that our project helped to support habitats being restored in Oxfordshire.
Alex Jelley
Project Manager
Oxfordshire County Council
Meeting biodiversity requirements to secure planning permission
The original planning application for the redevelopment of the road was submitted in 2022. Following public consultations and development of the detailed design, Oxfordshire County Council reached out to Environment Bank in November 2024.
The exact biodiversity requirements evolved throughout the project, so Environment Bank worked iteratively with Ramboll and the council’s Biodiversity Officer at every stage to keep everything on track, working through amendment processes to satisfy all the necessary biodiversity metrics.
Oxfordshire County Council completed their purchase with us in May of 2025, securing their Biodiversity Units well ahead of their scheduled on-site start date in September 2025.
We are very grateful to Environment Bank’s team for making the whole process straightforward and efficient, enabling us to provide the support our client needed within their timeframe.
Working closely with our team at Ramboll, Environment Bank sourced the Biodiversity Units needed to ensure impacted habitats were compensated for on a like-for-like basis to deliver the required overall 10% net gain, securing a range of habitats for wildlife and protected species for decades to come.
Eleanor King
Consultant
Ramboll
Supporting large-scale nature recovery in Oxfordshire and beyond
We supplied the council with Biodiversity Units from our Cornwell Habitat Bank in Oxfordshire. As this Habitat Bank sits within the adjacent local planning authority (LPA) area to the development, we were able to provide a more cost-effective solution.
Cornwell Habitat Bank partially lies within the nature ‘Recovery Zone,’ part of the Oxfordshire Nature Recovery Network, which aims to create wildlife friendly areas in Oxfordshire to help native plants and animals thrive. It is home to many protected wildlife species, including lapwing, kingfisher, great crested newt, and brown hare.
Environment Bank has England’s largest network of BNG Habitat Banks, allowing us to supply developers across the country with a diverse range of Biodiversity Unit habitat types. For example, on this project, Biodiversity Units with lowland mixed deciduous woodland were sourced from our Harrogate Habitat Bank due to developers requiring this particular habitat type.
It was a pleasure to work with Oxfordshire County Council and their delivery partners, Balfour Beatty and Ramboll, to help meet planning requirements while they improve the highways in their area.
We’re glad we could help to make a difference on such a large and important project that will transform such a high traffic area.
Nathan Jenkinson
Strategic Account Director
Environment Bank
