11 WILDLIFE PROTECTION AND RECENT PLANNING REQUIREMENTS FOR SMALL SCALE DEVELOPMENTS IN EAST SUFFOLK 2007–2010. T. LANGTON Background In recent years there has been increased awareness of ‘Biodiversity’ protection, together with new UK laws that help to implement the European Habitats Directive. These have resulted in County and District Council planning authorities (LPAs) more frequently, in fact routinely, requiring appraisal of protected species and habitat interests, even for relatively smallscale building work. This change has come about as the result of more comprehensive advisory documents on nature conservation issued by government. There have also been test cases around Britain where insufficient protected species survey work has lead to challenges and where LPAs have potentially become liable for costs. The government circulars OPDM 06/2005 and Defra 01/2005 on Biodiversity and Geological Conservation were strong steers to LPAs to give nature conservation more priority. Such increased vigilance complements the protection afforded by previous legislation. In Suffolk, the District Councils now place routine requests for development submissions to be accompanied by a biodiversity appraisal. These tend to fall into two categories. For work to buildings, typically parts of old farmsteads including rural houses, barns and stables, bat (Chiroptera) and nesting bird surveys are most often sought. Where a development area includes a pond or ponds within it or within 100 metres or so, the ponds and surrounding habitats may require assessment for use by semi-aquatic species such as great crested newt Triturus cristatus, water vole Arvicola terrestris and otter Lutra lutra. Impacts on such species must be considered. This brief summary is based on 43 such appraisals over a period of approximately three years from late 2007. It provides a small snapshot of the proportion of applications that reveal nature conservation interests. The projects were largely within the ‘ancient countryside’ (Rackham 1986) of East Suffolk and all but a couple were not positioned on or immediately next to designated sites, but in what might be described as wider countryside. The appraisals undertaken were small in scale but otherwise similar to the procedures for larger developments such as housing estate or road building. Findings result in proposed measures to avoid damage that are then sometimes ‘Conditioned’ within a planning permission. Actions needed include Statutory Agency licensed mitigation where proposed work might otherwise threaten to significantly reduce the ‘favourable conservation status’ of a ‘European Protected Species’. Nature conservation now requires the particular understanding of such phrases that form a technical and administrative language. This short review is a reference point for relative abundance of species. Monitoring of such appraisals could prove a cost-effective way for LPAs and others to record species distribution information and to monitor outcomes.
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 46 (2010)