News - General News and Views

With the start of the newt season fast approaching its time to begin thinking about those ponds on your site which might need surveying.  The survey season for newts is relatively short, beginning in March and ending in mid-June, with eDNA test being able to be undertaken from 15th April to 30th June.

Although presence/absence surveys or eDNA tests can determine if GCN are present any subsequent licence application to allow the translocation of GCN from your site needs to be informed by population assessments. These population assessments involve undertaking 6 survey visits. For the survey data to be considered valid at least half of these six survey visits need to be undertaken during mid-April to Mid-May and ideally spaced a week apart.

There is therefore a very real risk that survey work commissioned late in the survey season results in the full suite of survey visits being unable to be undertaken, potentially causing significant delays to your project.  

Early engagement with an experienced ecology consultant is essential in order to avoid untimely delays and unnecessary costs. Our bespoke ecology calendar is designed to help you programme in surveys during the appropriate survey windows.

Contact us to today to find out how we can successfully help you mitigate the ecological implications of your project. 

A planning application for a property redevelopment was recently withdrawn on the advice of the local authority. This was because no bat survey had been undertaken, even though anecdotal evidence suggested bats were roosting in the structure. The developer now has to wait until late spring, when bats are active again, for surveys to be carried out, prompting a delay of several months before their planning application can be resubmitted complete with the survey information and an assessment of any impacts the development might have on bats, if the surveys confirm that they are indeed present. By not doing this work earlier in the process, the developer has now incurred heavy delays and extra costs. Dr. Mikael Forup looks at the benefits of planning ahead when assessing the potential ecological impact of a proposed development. 

Tom Hartley examines what the recently published Scottish planning review could mean for the use of new technologies in public consultation and the planning process more generally.

Mikael Forup explains how good planning and management can help ensure developments have a net positive impact on the environment – and will have a better chance of securing planning consent as a result.

As summer draws to a close, there’s still much that can be done to progress ecological survey work during the winter. This will enable your project to get off the ground so you can take full advantage of the active season in the spring. Principal Ecologist Catherine Hibbert explains more.