Coney Weston Habitat Bank

County: Norfolk
Local planning authority (LPA): West Suffolk Council
National Character Area (NCA): The Brecks

Biodiversity Units

Very high distinctiveness habitats

Lowland meadows

High distinctiveness habitats

Ponds (priority habitat)
Species-rich native hedgerow with trees

Medium distinctiveness habitats

Rural trees
Mixed scrub
Other neutral grassland

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Habitat Bank overview

Less than seven miles from Thetford, our ecologists are transforming more than 55 acres of land into a haven for local flora and fauna, including some rare species currently only found in the Breckland including marsh fritillary butterflies and southern marsh orchids.

We’re working closely with the local farmer whose herd of red poll cattle, a conservation breed, are helping to manage the habitats through gentle grazing – a sustainable management approach that helps the land and supports local agriculture.

With a public footpath crossing the southern border, local people will be able to witness as Coney Weston Habitat Bank develops into a thriving space for nature over the coming decades.

BNG delivery

At every Habitat Bank, we always look at the land to determine what can be achieved from the very start. Our biodiversity experts assess the soil, wildlife, vegetation, geology, hydrology, management history, and connectivity across the local landscape.

We take a baseline for each Habitat Bank using the statutory biodiversity metric. We carefully select the best possible habitats for us to establish so we can deliver and demonstrate measurable biodiversity gains over time.

Coverage

Biodiversity Units from Coney Weston Habitat Bank offer an effective local off-site BNG solution for the West Suffolk Council LPA area and The Brecks NCA. They also provide adjacent coverage to the LPAs and NCAs listed below.

Adjacent LPAs	Adjacent NCAs
Babergh District Council	The Fens
Braintree District Council	Mid Norfolk
Breckland District Council	East Anglian Chalk
Mid Suffolk District Council	North West Norfolk
East Cambridgeshire District Council	South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland
South Cambridgeshire District Council	South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands
Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk

Our vision

Coney Weston Habitat Bank sits beside a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), including the Suffolk Wildlife Trust Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, Breckland Forest, Weston Fen, Fakenham Wood and Sapiston Great Grove. It’s also near to the Breckland Special Protection Area (SPA) and the Waveney and Little Ouse Valley Fens Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

We’re planting trees to build connectivity with the surrounding woodland and creating native scrub and heathland to echo the landscape character of Knettishall Heath, extending this unique habitat further across the Breckland.

We’ve also used both historic satellite imagery and ground-truthing to locate natural land depressions capable of holding water across the site, and we’re enhancing these to create ponds.

By placing our Habitat Bank in such close proximity to neighbouring nature sites, we hope to support a range of plants and wildlife. This includes floral species such as dropwort and the rare spring-sedge, and birds like turtle dove, lapwing, grey partridge, corn bunting, woodlark, and nightjar.

The habitats will also help to support several mammal species such as brown hare, otter, and water vole; amphibian species like the protected great crested newt; pollinating butterflies such as brown hairstreak and white admiral; and an extremely rare species of moth, the basil-thyme case-bearer – one that is only found in this area of England.