Avoid Nasty Shocks with Ecology

“Fifteen great crested newts added £315,000 to the cost of a road widening-widening project in North Wales and five slowworms caused a six-month delay on a house-building project after Natural England - the agency that advises the Government on nature conservation – stepped in to stop work on site.” Telegraph Property, May 12th, 2007.

Don’t be caught out – under PPS9 (Planning Policy Statement 9) local planning authorities are required to take into account potential impacts on protected species and sites when considering individual planning consents. Your development site may be a derelict brownfield site or a single building and perhaps located in a city or town, but you may still be asked by the local planning authority for an ecology survey even at a very late stage in the planning process.

The following tips would enable a site developer to minimise the risk of unexpected delays and costs in their development:

Before purchasing a site, find out what ecological liabilities and constraints there may be for development on your site by having an ecologist do a thorough Ecological Risk Assessment and produce a report.
Avoid having to substantially redesign your development by considering any likely ecological mitigation requirements early on in your site design.
Do not simply hope the local planning authority will not bring up ecology as an issue – they often do so at the last minute, resulting in the application having to be pulled and re-submitted at a later date (also please note: having planning consent does not circumvent wildlife legislation).
Do the ecology surveys as soon as possible - certain ecology issues require surveys to be carried out at specific times of year or the findings will not be considered valid by Natural England or the local planning authority.
Get further tips on helping your development go smoothly with ecology by contacting us.

In summary, get the ecological consultancy in early – initial Ecology Risk Assessments and other initial assessments for protected species can usually be done even in winter, and are often the only ecology assessment required. For further information on assessments, check out the other web pages on this site or contact us.