The LNRS website can be accessed here.
The LNRS is the area's statutory nature-recovery plan. It sets priorities, lists practical measures, and provides a Local Habitat Map showing where action matters most. For applications, the expectation is you align your on-site design/BNG with these mapped priorities and measures.
Find out if there are Strategic Significance issues on your site
Open the Local Habitat Map and check your red-line boundary against the layers. A site is strategic if it intersects:
Areas already important for biodiversity (designations/irreplaceable habitats)
Focus Areas for Nature Recovery (the mapped opportunity network; in regulation these are “areas that could become of particular importance”)
Mapped measures (specific habitat actions mapped to locations)
If you intersect any of these, treat the site as strategically significant and design your net gain to deliver the mapped measures there.
You can open the map in a new window (ArcGIS) and export screenshots for your submission. The toolkit also works outside focus areas, but the map is the “strategic” lens. westofengland-ca.gov.uk
Find out if there are habitats of importance
Use the interactive toolkit: click your site to see the recommended measures and filter by role (e.g., “planners/developers” or “farmers/landholders”) and by “habitat creation” or “enhancement.” This gives you a short-list of actions to reference in your BNG/HMMP.
Cross-check the Priorities & Measures page. Measures are location-dependent (e.g., soil/type—calcareous grassland measures only suit calcareous areas; farming measures don’t apply to built-up sites). Pick those that match your context (e.g., meadow creation, woodland/hedgerow connectivity, wetlands/riparian work, orchards) and cite them directly in your plan.