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Guidance: Prepare a planning proposal to avoid harm or disturbance to protected species

Natural England

July 26
09:40 2022

This guide is for developers. It explains what you must consider if youre planning a development on or near a site used by protected species.

There are separate guides:

Many species of plants and animals in England, and often their supporting features and habitats are protected. What you can and cannot do by law varies from species to species.

You should:

  • avoid harm or disturbance to protected species and their habitats
  • mitigate for the effect on them if its not possible to avoid harm
  • compensate for harm as a last resort

You may need to apply for a licence to allow activities that would otherwise be illegal.

How to prepare a development proposal

The National Planning Policy Framework explains how a local planning authority (LPA) should apply government planning policies to your planning proposal. Further guidance is set out in the natural environment planning practice guidance.

1. Assess the effect of development on protected species

Before you submit a planning application, you need to know if:

  • protected species are, or likely to be, on or near the development site
  • the proposed development would affect the protected species

You may need to carry out a survey to find this out.

You only need to survey if its likely that protected species are:

  • present on or near the development site
  • affected by the development

Ask an ecologist to help you decide if a survey is needed and to carry out the survey.

You can find one using either:

The LPA can ask you for the following.

A preliminary ecological appraisal to decide if you need to do a further survey where its not clear:

  • if there are species present
  • which species they are
  • if their numbers are significant to the species population as a whole

More detailed surveys to provide an assessment of the potential effects of your development.

A further survey as a condition of the planning permission - usually only for outline applications or multi-phased developments - to make sure protected species are not affected at each stage.

You may not need to provide a detailed survey if you can show that the protected species are not affected by your proposal, because of:

  • your proposed working methods
  • the layout of the development to retain supporting habitats or special features
  • the timing of the development to avoid sensitive times, such as hibernation and breeding seasons

You can ask for discretionary advice from Natural England about site specific survey needs and biodiversity. There is a charge for this service.

You can get expert ecological advice to help you decide if a survey is necessary. You can also get best practice survey guidance from professional bodies including CIEEM, species conservation bodies and the British Standards Institute.

Some species are designated and protected as European protected species (EPS). EPS get full protection under The Conservation of Species and Habitats Regulations 2017. Its an offence to deliberately capture, injure or kill, or deliberately disturb EPS.

If you can predict the effect of your development on EPS it may be possible for the LPA to use licensing policy 4, which in certain circumstances allows you to do less survey work and propose worst-case scenario compensation. Natural England can advise you about this.

The LPA can refuse planning permission if the surveys:

  • are carried out at the wrong time of the year, are not up to date or do not follow standard survey guidelines without appropriate justification
  • do not provide enough evidence for them to assess the likely impact on the species and its supporting habitat

2. Avoid, mitigate or compensate for harm or disturbance

Youll need to use your survey results to consider the effect of your proposed development on protected species and their habitats.

If its likely that the development will affect protected species, you should get advice from an ecologist and discuss your proposals as early as possible with the LPA.

You should make sure that your proposed development has avoided impacts on protected species, for example by changing the layout or timing of the development. If this is not possible you should incorporate appropriate measures to mitigate for the impacts. The mitigation plan checklist (PDF, 87.1 KB, 2 pages) can help you decide on appropriate mitigation. As a last resort you should compensate for impacts.

3. Consider ways to enhance biodiversity

In line with the National Planning Policy Framework, you should consider ways to deliver a net gain for biodiversity by:

  • keeping, creating new, or enhancing existing habitats on your development site
  • improving connections between habitats
  • including features, such as green roofs, street trees or sustainable drainage into your design

4. Submit your planning application

As part of your planning application, you need to check you have submitted all the appropriate information about the effect your development proposal would have on protected species.

If the LPA does not have enough information to make a decision, they can ask you for further information.

This may include asking for:

  • further surveys or assessments
  • a mitigation or compensation strategy and information on enhancement measures
  • a monitoring and review plan

The LPA will decide whether to grant planning permission

The LPA will refuse planning permission if significant harm from development cannot be:

  • avoided, for example by measures such as moving to an alternative site with less harmful effects
  • adequately mitigated for
  • as a last resort, compensated for

If you need a separate protected species licence, the

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