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Protected areas

You are responsible for finding out if your development is likely to affect a protected area or site. Your planning authority may not grant you planning permission if it damages a protected area or site.

The following areas are protected:

• national parks
• areas of outstanding natural beauty
• sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)
• special areas of conservation (SACs)
• special protection areas (SPAs)
• Ramsar wetlands
• local sites
• sites in the process of becoming SACs or SPAs (candidate SACs, possible SACs, potential SPAs and sites of community importance (SCIs) or a Ramsar wetland (proposed Ramsar site)
• Marine Conservation Zones

Search the mapping tool to see if your development is in or near protected land. To find out how your development proposals will be affected by a protected site, contact your local planning authority.

You can get advice from Natural England if your plans affect protected areas. You might have to pay a fee.

Protected sites

You must consider how your development proposal will affect any nearby SSSI, SPA, SAC or Ramsar site.

Check how your activity could affect an SSSI, SPA, SAC or Ramsar site with the risk zone feature of this mapping tool, or download the SSSI impact risk zone data for your own software.

Your planning authority may consult Natural England if your activity potentially affects a protected site in the risk zone. They can ask you to change your plans, do the work in a certain way or refuse you planning permission.

Government agencies, councils and other public bodies need to request permission from Natural England for activities that could damage SSSIs.

If your proposal also affects a European protected site which is, or is proposed as, a SAC, SPA or Ramsar wetland, the planning authority will need to do a Habitats Regulations assessment. You may need to give the planning authority extra information to help them do this assessment, eg extra survey information.

Protected species

Many species of plant and animal in England, and their habitats, are protected by law. What you can and cant do by law varies from species to species.

European protected species

European protected species have the highest level of protection and include:

• all species of bats
• beavers
• great crested newts
• hazel or common dormice
• otters
• natterjack toads
• reptiles (some species)
• protected plants (some species)
• large blue butterfly
• sturgeon

Youre breaking the law if you:

• capture, kill, disturb or injure a European protected species (on purpose or by not taking enough care)
• damage or destroy a breeding or resting place (even accidentally)
• obstruct access to their resting or sheltering places (on purpose or by not taking enough care)
• possess, sell, control or transport live or dead individuals, or parts of them

Disturbing a protected species includes any deliberate activity that affects:

• a groups ability to survive, breed or raise their young
• the species numbers or range in the local area

If youre found guilty of an offence you could get an unlimited fine and up to 6 months in prison.

Other protected species

Other protected species and groups include:

• badgers
• water voles
• wild birds
• ancient woodland and veteran trees
• white-clawed crayfish
• freshwater pearl mussels

You need to apply for a development licence if your plans affect badgers. However for other non-European Protected Species, you cant apply for a development licence. In some circumstances Natural England will consider issuing a licence where theres a conservation benefit for the affected species, such as the water vole.

Exceptional cases

In most circumstances, you should be able to avoid causing harm to protected species by either:

• timing your planned activity
• applying other mitigation methods

In exceptional cases, avoiding harm isnt possible. In these cases the law allows for actions which would normally be illegal if you can show that:

• the activity is lawful, such as development with planning permission
• youve not been able to avoid the impact of the activity

This exception is often called the incidental result defence. You can only use this if youre able to show youve covered all parts of the defence by:

• following good practice in planning and carrying out the works
• trying to reduce the impact of development on the protected species

A court would decide if you have applied the defence properly. You should get professional advice before you use the defence.

Decide if you need a mitigation licence

Youll need to decide if your project will affect a protected species or its habitat, and whether youll need a licence. You can get expert advice from an ecologist to help you decide.

You should try everything else possible to avoid disturbing the species, blocking access to or damaging its habitat. In most cases you should be able to plan the work to achieve this.

If this isnt possible and your activity will affect the species, you can apply for a mitigation licence. Applying for a licence should be your last resort and only applies to a minority of cases. Your ecologist should help you with your application.

Your ecologist will conduct surveys to show how the species uses the area, and develop mitigation plans to reduce any negative effects.

Youll need to include the survey findings, impact assessments and mitigation plans (to reduce harm to the species) with your mitigation licence application.

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