The second sentence of this policy seems to imply that all of the features that follow are necessarily of importance for fauna or flora, which of course will not always be the case e.g. not all hedgerows or ponds are necessarily always of material nature conservation interest. If the intention of the policy is to protect these features where they are of nature conservation importance, then to avoid ambiguity the sentence should state ... "The Council will protect the following landscape features from loss or damage where they are of importance for fauna and flora, when considering proposals:"

There is potentially a contradiction between the first and the second paragraphs, with the first paragraph appearing to state a categorical position on protection from loss or damage, and the second paragraph (correctly in our view) noting that an exception will exist where there is appropriate mitigation. To aid clarity, it may in fact be easiest to delete the second sentence in the first paragraph entirely, and place the list of features after the second paragraph.