What should I do if I find protected species on my site after development has started?

Category: Ecology in Planning and Development

What should I do if I find protected species on my site after development has started?

If protected species are found on your site after work has started, you will need to stop any work which may affect the species or its habitat.

You should then contact a professional ecologist for advice on how to proceed.

It may be necessary to stop work whilst ecological surveys are undertaken and a protected species licence is obtained.  This could take a considerable amount of time because any surveys will need to be undertaken at the right time of the year, the licensing process can take several months and new habitats may need to be created and allowed to mature before any protected species can be moved there.

To avoid this scenario, you should contact an ecologist for advice in the early stages of the development process and then periodically as the development progresses.  It will be especially important to contact the ecologist if no surveys have been undertaken on the site or there has been a gap of more than a year between the completion of the ecology surveys and dveleopment works commencing on the site.

For further guidance, please give us a call on 01483 466000