Posts Tagged ‘ecologist’
Ecologist
Why do I need a Bat Survey for Planning in London?
Why do I need a Bat Survey for Planning in London?
Bats are a European protected species and if roosting in your property or garden, can present your design and build programme with delays and costs that were unplanned for. In London, most local planning authorities have internal consultees—ecologists—who comment on planning applications in respect to the impact of upon the relative habitat value at your site of proposed development. The purpose of surveying for bats is to ensure that when your planning application is assessed, any impact on bats and their habitat has been fully considered and mitigation is proposed, appropriate to the species of bat, population numbers and their use of your site—assuming of course, that the bats’ presence is confirmed.
Why is bat mitigation important? OPDM Circular 06/05 and more recently, PPS9 ‘Biodiversity and Geological Conservation‘ are central government planning policy documents that state categorically, that a development’s effect on local populations of protected species and habitats must be a material consideration for council officers, prior to determination of the application. Without information sufficient for this task, the planning authority has no choice but to refuse consent. Were a London authority to attempt to defer matters such as bat surveys to conditions of consent, the decision could easily be appealed by an objector, which in almost one hundred percent of cases the Inspectors find in favour of the appellant and quash permissions.
Key Fact 1: Bat Surveys
‘Planning permission’ and ‘protected species’ are two phrases often synonymous with frustration, red tape, unexpected costs and delays to the development schedule. It doesn’t have to be like this. Being proactive and engaging experienced, helpful and expert bat consultants will address these matters head on. The first step is to employ a bat surveyor (or consultant) to undertake a scoping bat survey at your site. This survey aims to exclude three things: bats, evidence of bat activity and roosting habitat. If any of these three things are present in quantity or quality, further survey will be required. If not, i.e. the survey results are negative, you’ll have no further problems. What of the further survey effort then? So-called bat emergence surveys are dusk and dawn activities that involve surveyors using bat detectors and constantly surveying a building during the bats’ activity window, a night. The detectors help convert the echolocation calls of bats, which are beyond human hearing range, into a sound we can not only hear but differentiate between species. This survey is often performed over two or three nights to ensure scientific robustness and draw meaningful conclusions from. The resulting survey report is presented to you with recommendations for either no further action, in the case there was no bat activity, or for mitigation and habitat enhancements, where bats were observed at the site: as “confirmed roost.”
Key Fact 2: Mitigation and Licensing
In consequence of your surveys, you may require an EPSL, or European protected species license, to demolish a property (roost) that is confirmed as bat habitat. This will require you to prepare a detailed bat mitigation strategy, though is a fairly simple protocol to follow. Arbtech have arguably more experience of this than any other consultancy in the UK, so are well placed to advise you should a license be required. In the case that an EPSL is not require, your planning consent will probably have a just a few simple conditions to follows, e.g. installing bat boxes or having your roof strip supervised by an ecologist.
If you found this article informative, please let us know.
About the Author
Arbtech Consulting Ltd is a national Ecological Consultancy.
Tree Survey, Habitat Survey, Bat Survey
For Planning and Development
Ecologist
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