Planning for Sustainability

The protection and enhancement of ecological resources and biodiversity is one of the objectives of the planning system and are a material consideration in the determiniation of planning applications.

Planning for Sustainability can provide support in the form of ecological surveys and ecological impact assessments. All our surveys are carried out by experienced and qualified staff, who are members of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management.

Because important species can be found in the most unlikely circumstances carrying out a basic initial ecological survey is good practice in almost any development project. We provide such an initial ecological survey in the form of a combined desk based study and an extended phase 1 habitat survey.

Initial ecological survey

The intial ecological study consitst of a deskbased study and an ecological survey in the form of an extended phase 1 habitat survey. The deskbased study comprises consultation of public sources to determine statutory and non-statutory designated sites, the consultation of areal photograph and the consultation of county biological records.

At its core a phase 1 habitat survey is a methodology for the relatively rapid recording of semi-natural vegetation and wildlife habitat. Its purpuse is to enable the identification for the requirements of further detailed ecological survey work as well as to enable to prioritise these further ecological surveys. The enhanced version that is refered to as an extended phase 1 habitat survey includes targeted searches for signs of protected or notable faunal species.

The findings of both the desk based study and the ecological survey will be documented in a concise report. Depending on the outcome of the study this report can be used to formulate a number of simple mitigation and enhancement options a commitment to which can be referred to in the the planning application documents or it can be used to develop and agree a programme of further ecological surveys and the design of advanced mitigation and enhancement solutions.

BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes

Both the BREEAM methodology and the Code for Sustainable Homes include a catagory regarding ecology. To enable the award of credits under these schemes it is often required to provide the results of an ecological survey as evidence. The principles underlying the ecological survey work for BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes are identical to those used for ecological surveys to support planning applications and environmental impact assessments. However there are some specific reporting requirements that should be taken into consideration before undertaking the ecological surveys. We can provide ecological survey reports that will comply with the requirements in the BREEAM and code for Sustainable Homes methodologies.