Potland Burn BNG bank, Northumberland

A countywide resource

Large scale open mosaic habitat

A myriad of interconnected new pools, landforms and plant associations

Restored land from surface mining

Often very modest to the eye, nature recovery is a global and national imperative.

The introduction of statutory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) into the planning process is an opportunity to build ecological enhancement into new development.

Whilst this rightly means that greater priority is given to habitat retention, BNG has however proved challenging on sites where scope for mitigation is limited or the habitats required to satisfy are not easily created. Some schemes must look at off-site alternatives so as to achieve their statutory obligations. Most commonly this is open mosaic habitat associated with derelict brownfield sites.

Potland Burn was conceived as a solution to the loss of open mosaic habitat at a significant new industrial development in Northumberland where on site mitigation was not possible and there were not enough habitat units available to buy on the private market.

Recently restored after surface mining, the 275 hectare site at Potland Burn does not contain any valuable habitats or soils and was therefore ideal for the creation of new and enhanced habitats.

Whilst the habitat will not be open mosaic, it will be a highly complex mosaic of grassland, scrub and wetlands on a large scale and linked to the Southeast Northumberland Habitat Network which means that it can be used as an alternative to open mosaic credits.

Colour supported Advance Green Futures’ ecologists to develop design proposals for the open mosaic, working closely with their team of ecologists to understand final goals of the habitat creation and translate this into a broad range of treatments.

The process carefully balances areas in order to achieve the ratios of habitats required for this highly complex habitat.

Once the site and ecological model was established, construction progressed at pace to provide credits available for purchased by local development sites.

This combination of technical landscape design and habitat creation facilitated is true to Colour’s practice purpose, vision and values of Colour with such an opportunity to have a positive impact on both nature recovery and the stunning Northumbrian rural landscape.

Updates to follow here as we continue to develop the resource, visit the site from Summer 2026 and look forward to seeing nature coming in in its many ways

LOCATION Northumberland CLIENT Advance Northumberland TEAM Advance Green Futures STATUS in Construction 2026