The World Wildlife Fund defines biodiversity as all the different kinds of life you’ll find in one area. This includes not only plant and animal life, but also fungi, bacteria, protozoa and viruses. All these together form an ecosystem that is specific for the area they are in.
Bury Council’s biodiversity strategy
In Bury Council, Councillor Quinn prepared a leaflet on the council’s work towards conserving and enhancing biodiversity. In it he explains that ‘some species have experienced significant decline in Bury, such as hares, lapwing, martins and swifts. On the other hand, some have increased, such as roe deer, fox, badger and some butterfly species.’
The councillor quotes a Report from The State of Nature which states that there is a 19% decline in the numbers per species in the United Kingdom since the 1970s, and observed that 16% of species in the UK (nearly one in six!) are threatened with extinction.
Councillor Quinn explained in the Biodiversity Strategy leaflet that the decline of the UK’s nature over the decades has been attributed to:
- urban development,
- agricultural intensification,
- introduced diseases,
- invasive non-native species,
- pollution,
- climate change.
In March 2022, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (of which Bury Council is a member) declared a biodiversity emergency, and set out some initiatives across the region hoping to recover and restore biodiversity, reverse habitat loss and explore what can be done.
According to the Biodiversity Strategy of Bury Council, ‘Greater Manchester launched a new Green Spaces Fund (run through the Greater Manchester Environment Fund) for community groups wanting to create new spaces or improve existing ones in their local area’.
Biodiversity is important and needs protection
A healthy natural environment is of key importance to our everyday life, the air, food and water we all need.
Cllr Quin explains in the Strategy leaflet ‘It is increasingly accepted that connection to nature positively affects our physical health and mental wellbeing. Biodiverse and natural areas also have a strong connection to the sense of place in neighbourhoods across Bury’.
The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, as amended by the 2021 Environment Act, ‘places a duty on all public authorities in England and Wales to have regard, in the exercise of their functions, to the purpose of conserving and enhancing biodiversity’. This means that councils need to have policies or strategies in place to look after their green infrastructure and the biodiversity it offers.
Waterways and valleys offer a diverse habitat
In the Bury region, the rivers Irwell and Roch are the main waterways. River valleys provide a habitat for a large diversity of wildlife, flora and fauna, and offer living and nesting areas as well as safe corridors for wildlife to use. Other important areas in Bury include the moorlands and Ringley Woods.
Bury’s Strategy: ‘Bury’s ponds and lodges support a diverse range of aquatic flora and fauna, including five species of amphibian, numerous damselflies and dragonflies, and many species of breeding and wintering wetland birds. They also provide important foraging areas for bats with nine species recorded in the borough’. Cllr Quinn observed that ‘Otter signs have recently been found on the River Irwell, and it is hoped this beautiful mammal will recolonise some of its former haunts over the coming years.
Bury has one of the highest concentrations of ponds in Greater Manchester together with a number of important lodges and reservoirs. The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal also runs through the Borough’.
Special areas need extra protection
Some special sites are called SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) or SBI (Site of Biological Importance) SSSIs are known for their national importance because of the wildlife living there and/or the geology of the site, and are designated as such by Natural England.
Greater Manchester has 23 SSSIs as of 2025 of which two are situated in Bury – these being a small section of the West Pennine Moors and Ashclough which sits on the boundary of Bury and Bolton. Bury currently has 50 Sites of Biological Importance, sometimes referred to as ‘local sites’, which are Bury’s best areas for finding a diverse flora and fauna. These sites are designated as such by the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit. They are a category of site described nationally as ‘sites of local biodiversity interest’ and they are protected .
Policies and procedures?
Cllr Quinn describes biodiversity as a ‘corporate issue’ observing that ‘local authorities must take all opportunities to improve policies and practices’. The UK Government declared that ‘public authorities who operate in England must consider what they can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity in England. This is the strengthened ‘biodiversity duty’ that the Environment Act 2021 introduces’.
The UK authorities confirmed this ‘means that, public authorities, must:
- consider what you can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity.
- agree policies and specific objectives based on your consideration; and
- act to deliver your policies and achieve your objectives.
What is the next step for Bury Council?
Ideally we would see them put in place a biodiversity policy, as a way to follow up on the good ideas listed in the Biodiversity Strategy. This would make sure council officials are aware of what to do and how to protect the areas of special interest in the borough, and preserve the biodiversity there is, as well as increasing the chances of furthering the biodiversity.
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