The banks · Kettleby · Phases 1 and 2
Kettleby
Habitat Networks Ltd. Forty-eight hectares
of former arable on the chalk, taken out of the rotation in
2024 and put into habitat creation under a
thirty-year plan. Phase 1 has been passed by the council and is lodged with
Natural England for the biodiversity gain sites register, waiting on confirmation.
Phase 2 is the block now in front of the council.
Phase 1 — the points
Section 106 in place · with Natural EnglandUpdated 1 September 2026
Passed by North Lincolnshire Council and lodged with Natural England, waiting on
confirmation. 18.63 hectares of former arable, five field parcels, five years in the plan to first
target conditions. These are net gain — the arable baseline is already off every line, so this
is what is actually for sale.
HabitatBNG units
Wildflower grasslandOther neutral grassland · medium · 7.34 ha · parcels 1–253.18
Tussocky grasslandMedium · 3.16 ha · parcel 316.93
Broadleaved woodlandMedium · 6.94 ha · parcels 9–1021.91
Mixed scrubMedium · 1.11 ha · parcels 4–88.06
Modified grasslandLow · enhanced, not replaced · 0.07 ha0.50
Area habitat unitsPassed by the council100.58
Species-rich native hedgerowMedium · 1.01 km8.73
Species-rich hedgerow with treesHigh · 0.90 km8.74
Hedgerow unitsPassed by the council17.47
Priority habitat riverVery high · enhanced · 0.31 km0.28
Watercourse unitsThe only watercourse gain on either farm0.28
Phase 1, all units100.58 area + 17.47 hedgerow + 0.28 watercourse118.33
Kettleby, Phase 118.63 ha · section 106 in place
Phase 2 — the points, in draft
HMMP with the councilUpdated 1 September 2026
A further 10.75 hectares. The habitat management and monitoring plan is
with the council and we are waiting on their comments; it goes to Natural England
for registration after that. These figures are from the metric as drafted and will move if the
council asks for changes — indicative, not for committing a scheme to yet.
HabitatBNG units
Open mosaic on previously developed landHigh distinctiveness · 5.63 ha · created36.3
Other neutral grasslandMedium · 2.71 ha · created17.4
Mixed scrubMedium · 0.91 ha created · 0.07 ha enhanced6.2
Area habitat units, draftNet of the grassland and arable baseline59.9
Species-rich native hedgerowTwo runs, one with trees · 0.74 km6.14
Hedgerow units, draftAll new — no hedgerow baseline on this land6.14
Phase 2, all units59.9 area + 6.14 hedgerow · no watercourse on this block66.0
High distinctiveness is the point. Everything at Phase 1 is medium-distinctiveness habitat.
Trading rules require a loss to be replaced with the same distinctiveness or better, so a developer
who has taken out something high-distinctiveness cannot use Phase 1 units at all. The open mosaic
habitat at Phase 2 is high distinctiveness, and it is the largest single block on either phase.
Where Phase 2 stands
Two authorities
Phase 2 straddles West Lindsey District Council and North Lincolnshire Council, where Phase 1 sits in North Lincolnshire alone.
Where it is
The habitat management and monitoring plan is with the council. We are waiting on their comments; it goes to Natural England for registration after that.
Then what
Their comments, the management plan, the Section 106, and registration. The route Phase 1 has already been down.
How firm the figures are
They come from the metric as drafted and will move if the council asks for changes — Phase 1’s did. Indicative only; do not commit a scheme to them.
Kettleby, Phase 210.75 ha · final review with the council
Two more blocks are coming. Phase 3 is about 32 hectares on Phase 1’s
pattern, its management plan being prepared; Phase 4 is the old quarry, 23 hectares, chiefly
open mosaic habitat. Both are ground truthed but neither is surveyed, and
neither can be
sold, reserved or allocated — so they are set out on their own page rather than
among the units that are real.
The two blocks coming forward →
The detail — for whoever checks
The record
Local planning authority
North Lincolnshire Council
National Character Area
NCA 43, Lincolnshire Wolds
Register reference
BGS-000000000
Where Phase 1 stands
Passed by North Lincolnshire Council. Lodged with Natural England for the biodiversity gain sites register; we are waiting on confirmation, and units cannot be allocated to a scheme until it lands. No date has been given for it.
Legal mechanism
Section 106 planning obligation with North Lincolnshire Council, binding the land for 30 years. What it obliges us to do →
Secured until
30 years from first sale
Owner, occupier and operator
Anthony Turnbull, Habitat Networks Ltd — freehold owner, farmer, and the party responsible for delivery
Baseline and metric by
ESL (Ecological Services) Ltd — Luke Hartley MCIEEM, approved by Dave Hughes MCIEEM. About the practice →
Monitoring
Years 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30, reported to the council and funded from unit sales
Where it sits
The block runs along the top of
the wold, with the farm road on one side and the parish boundary on the other. It is visible from
the road, which matters more than it sounds — a planning officer or a buyer can look at it without
an appointment, and the community affected by the development that buys these units can see where
the gain went.
What was there before
Continuous combinable cropping — wheat, oilseed rape
and beans — on thin chalk soils that never carried a reliable yield in a dry spring. It
scored low on the baseline metric precisely because it was productive-but-poor ground, and that is
what makes the uplift real rather than paper. There was no ecological interest to lose.
What went in, and when
Summer 2024
Baseline survey and condition assessment, in the botanical season. Metric run, management plan drafted, Section 106 negotiated.
Autumn 2024
Species-rich chalk grassland mix drilled into a cultivated seedbed across the main body of the block.
Winter 2024–25
Scrub blocks planted on the steeper margins where the ground was hardest to farm. Existing hedge lines gapped up and taken out of the annual flail.
Spring 2025
The pond in the bottom corner re-profiled to hold water later into the summer.
Since
Establishment management — topping in the first year to knock back annual weeds and let the sown species get away.
How it is managed, year in year out
This is the part that runs for thirty years, and it is done with the farm's own kit by the people
who farm the rest of the holding.
The grassland
Cut and baled after the sward has set seed, with the date moved year to year on the ecologist's advice rather than fixed to the calendar.
The scrub
Left to thicken, with encroachment onto the grassland controlled so one habitat does not swallow the other.
The hedges
On a rotational cycle rather than cut every year, so a proportion always carries berries through the winter.
The pond
Margins kept open, scrub off the southern edge so it does not shade out.
What is not done
No fertiliser, no cultivation, and no spraying beyond spot treatment of injurious and invasive weeds where the plan allows it.
Ask for the report. Any buyer, and anybody thinking about being one, can have a copy of every
monitoring report on this site, including the ones that record something falling short.