I recently received an update from the design officer at county hall setting out plans for environmental works to be carried out in Crimdon from June this year. I've reproduced the update below for information:
As you are aware the Crimdon café, community room and public toilets are now open and I’m sure that you will agree are proving to be a great asset for the site at Crimdon.
You may already be aware that one of the mitigation measures for the build required by planning and conservation regulations was to compensate for the loss of habitat area by providing some additional habitat area. Although this was originally proposed as being incorporated over the roof of the new centre it had to be subsequently withdrawn due to necessary constraints on the overall build cost.
In order to provide ecological net gain (and therefore enable the planning application to comply with the National Planning Policy Framework) the mitigation measures for the café proposal include fencing around the areas marked in green on the attached plan in order to ensure the protection of the grassland by providing a coastal meadow habitat. The grassland meadows are currently struggling to survive at this location due to uncontrolled car parking and is degrading to the extent that there is a decline in birds, butterflies and other wildlife and habitats on site. Fencing will allow the plant species within the meadows to flower and seed naturally and provide a habitat for specialist dune species to colonise inland. The meadows will be monitored by the Ecology section with management actions recommended as appropriate.
As the proposed café was to be sited very close to areas designated as European Protected Sites the planning application required a Habitat Regulations Appropriate Assessment to be undertaken. (The Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast Special Protection Area covers the beach while the Durham Coast Special Area of Conservation covers the coastal cliffs, and the Durham Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest covers the sand dunes in this location).
To enable the Appropriate Assessment to conclude there would be no significant effect on the adjacent European Protected Sites, the application had to identify sufficient mitigation to reduce the impact of the increase in recreational disturbance the new café was likely to generate.
The result is that compensation for increased recreational pressure on the European protected sites is to be achieved by slightly reducing the car parking provision on the Crimdon dunes site in order to protect the dune system and habitats from the pressures arising from the increased visitor numbers associated with the development. Currently carparking spaces total 120; and the above mitigation measures mean that the number of carparking spaces will be slightly reduced by 16, so still leaving 104 available parking spaces, as well as two further spaces at the visitor hub itself which are to be earmarked for disabled users.
The spaces which are to be removed are those at the far end
of the site by the Pony World stables, nearest to the dune system which
is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (see attached Plan A).
You may also be aware that the stables are no longer operating commercially
which has lessened demand in this vicinity. Fencing will also be erected
to deter the use of desire line paths.
The benefits that the whole new build brings are significant, not only for properly accommodating the welfare of visitors but also in terms of a space for education, training and wardens so we can ensure we protect the area’s important natural habitat. The need for a trade-off through some parking restriction in order to comply with regulations should be considered as a worthwhile exercise. I believe therefore that you would agree that it is important to protect what we have at Crimdon into the future, as we are indeed obliged to do along the Heritage Coast as a whole and appreciate the importance of keeping this natural site special.
Works are planned to commence on site during the week commencing 6th June 2022 and there will be some explanatory interpretation of these provisions provided on the site when works commence.