Great Crested Newts - An Approach for the Future (Licensing and Mitigation in the South East of England)
Date: Friday 5 March 2010
Venue: Cockroft Hall, Brighton University, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4AT
Powerpoint Presentations
The National Picture on Great Crested Newt Conservation Status
Tony Gent (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust)
The Amphibian and Reptile Group (ARG) Perspective
Barry Kemp AIEEM (Sussex Amphibian and Reptile Group / ARG UK representative)
A Consultant’s Perspective of the Key Issues
Kevin Morgan MIEEM (Private Consultant Experienced in Great Crested Newt Mitigation)
Changes in Approach to Licensing: Natural England Standing advice on Protected Species
Louise Bardsley MIEEM and Marian Ashdown (Natural England Eastern Area Team)
The Licensing Service’s Perspective
Lyndon Baker and Kathryn Murray (Wildlife Management Licensing Service)
1. Summary of the Event
This event was jointly held by IEEM SESS and University of Brighton on March 5th 2010 at the Cockcroft Hall, University of Brighton. The conference included talks by speakers presenting a range of perspectives on great crested newt conservation, specifically through the licensing process, and included up to date advice from Natural England on the licensing process. There was also a workshop session which aimed to find ways to better resolve specific issues experienced by practitioners in this field.
2. Who Attended?
The majority of 150 delegates were professional ecological consultants, but included individuals from county and district councils, Environment Agency, Natural England, wildlife trusts, FWAG, various universities, utility companies, ARC Trust.
3. Talk Synopses
Great Crested Newt Species Action Plan - A national perspective. What's going on with the great crested newt?
Tony Gent (ARC Trust)
In July, the Species Action Plan was revised with rejuvenated actions for the new targets which aim to increase the range of the species, the number of occupied ponds and the number of suitable ponds across the UK (agreed in 2005); but what does this mean for the conservation of this captivating species? This talk explored some of the important issues, including assessment of status, the threats affecting the species, and opportunities to achieve conservation gain. The talk highlighted how consultants records are of key importance to the analysis that the ARC trust is trying to do. Currently only a very small proportion of us send our records to local record centres or ARG groups and there is also no current mechanism for the data sent to Natural England as part of the licencing process to be properly captured for use by record centres and the ARC trust. The ARC Trust will continue to work with data providers (including consultants) to try to overcome these data capture issues. www.arc-trust.org.
Local Record Centres and the Flow of Herpetological Data
Henri Brocklebank (Sussex Biological Records Centre)
Local Record Centres (LRCs) exist across the UK, in varying degrees of development. LRCs provide biodiversity information to all for public benefit. Business models vary around the UK, but the provision of biodiversity data is true to all. However the flow of each data within each county depends on both local relationships and National relationships. Getting these relationships right is essential for high quality data flow for biodiversity data, and Herpetological data is no exception.
For data to get from recorder to consultant is relatively straightforward, but to ensure that all of the relevant data goes in this direction, in a useable and quality assured format is more complex. Henri talked about the strengths and pitfalls of herpetological data flow and about sharing the responsibility with all herpetologists for ensuring that the right data reaches the right consultant.
The Trouble with Licensing, Developers, Consultants and Planners - A Great Crested Newt’s View of it All (from an ARG’s Perspective)
Barry Kemp AIEEM (ARG-UK)
County Amphibian & Reptile Groups (ARG's) have been in existence for over 20 years and in this time must have advised on, managed and created thousands of ponds for great crested newts. ARG's are often involved in GCN licensing for conservation or survey licences and are frequently asked by both volunteers and consultants to endorse survey licence applications. Although ARG's generally don't get directly involved in GCN licensing for development purposes, they are often consulted on these issues by LPA's and other bodies. Over the years Sussex ARG has encountered many examples of how GCNs are overlooked in terms of development. This presentation highlighted the pros and cons of the legal protection given to GCNs, and illustrated some of the issues that arise prior to, during and after GCNs have been identified on development sites, as well as highlighting instances where conservation minded landowners have become unwittingly entwined in GCN legislation.
Great Crested Newts – Past Struggles, Present Dilemmas and the Focus for the Future
Kevin Morgan MIEEM (Ecological Consultant)
This talk comprised a look back at over 20 years involvement with great crested newts, from some epic last minute rescues to improving mitigation, from the growing interest in conserving great crested newts, to the self defeating ‘risk-adverse’ approach, and some thoughts and ideas on the way ahead.
Natural England’s Standing Advice on Protected Species
Louise Bardsley MIEEM and Marian Ashdown (Natural England Local Team)
Natural England has issued standing advice for planning applications which may affect protected species (including great crested newts) and is available on the Natural England website at the following link: http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/regions/south_east/ourwork/standingadvice/default.aspx.
The standing advice is to enable planning authorities to determine, by use of a simple flowchart, if sufficient information has been provided for the application to be validated. This standing advice replaces individual consultation responses for applications where insufficient information has been provided, and should result in fewer objections and appeals against non determination or refusal. The standing advice has the same legal status as a specific consultation response to a specific planning application. In other words, it is still a statutory consultation response.
Natural England suggested that consultants can use the standing advice to ensure they have carried out their surveys appropriately, and that they have submitted sufficient and appropriate information to planning authorities, since it is against this standing advice that most applications will be tested.
Natural England also discussed the reasons for the implementation for the standing advice, which was to promote a common standard to which planning applications should be tested, and to ensure that local authorities are adequately undertaken their duty of care with respect to European protected species.
Natural England explained the next phase of the standing advice, which is to move away from providing advice to local planning authorities over individual planning applications. This will be rolled out as a trial in the South East of England by September 2010 Natural England are currently working with South East planning authorities to build capacity, so that they have sufficient ecological expertise in place in time for the start of the trial. This includes some proposed training that they hope will be available eventually to those involved in protected species (including great crested newt) surveys. It was suggested that some of this training might be made available through IEEM.
Great Crested Newt Mitigation Licensing: A Regulators Point of View
Lyndon Baker and Kathryn Murray (Natural England’s Wildlife Management Licensing Unit)
This talk comprised a summary of the legal protection of great crested newts, the legislative tests for mitigation licensing, the principles of mitigation, the outcomes of mitigation, the challenges Natural England faces in its work and the future of licensing. Lyndon Baker stressed that the licensing team can and do accept deviations from current best practice guidelines, provided either: (a) direct evidence from other projects or research that it is likely to be effective is provided; or, if no direct evidence is available (b) a sound rationale for why it is considered appropriate and likely to be effective. Applications that involve reductions to standard recommendations (e.g. lower capture effort or habitat areas) would only be acceptable if there are clear logistical or ecological reasons for this. He called upon consultant ecologists to clearly state why deviations are appropriate for any given licence application.
4. Links to Useful Sources of Legal Information
Natural England
Wildlife Management and Licensing Service: Advice; Advisory Leaflets
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/regulation/wildlife/default.aspx
- Herpetofauna Workers Manual
(hard copy only from JNCC's mailing house NHBS, tel: 01803 865913) - Great Crested Newts Mitigation Guidelines
- Great Crested Newts: Conservation licences for pond management work
- Great Crested Newts: Educational pond dipping and invertebrate survey guidance
- Great Crested Newt Conservation Handbook (Froglife)
Wildlife Management and Licencing Service: Licences: Application forms
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/regulation/wildlife/licences/applicationforms.aspx#2
- Method Statement (spreadsheet) – includes guidance within it.
- European Protected Species: How to get a licence WML – G12
- GCN Mitigation Guidelines
- GCN Conservation Handbook
- Handy Hints for obtaining a great crested newt development licence
- Experience in great crested newt mitigation: Guidance for ecologists
- Guidance on great crested newt master plan requirements for phased or multiplot developments
- Providing unnecessary “over mitigation/compensation” will not secure a mitigation licence
Natural England Statement:Policy and Guidance, European Protected Species and the Planning Process. Judicial Review Judgement 5th June 2009: Woolley v Cheshire East Borough Council and Millennium Estates Limited
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/WoolleyVsCheshireEastBC_tcm6-12832.pdf
Defra Guidance on the Habitat Regulations
Questions and Answers relating to the 2007 Amendment Regulations [PDF] (263 KB)
Questions and Answers relating to the 2009 Amendment Regulations [PDF] (54 KB)
Guidance relating to 2007 amendments
For species:
General overview of changes to species protection provisions [PDF] (19 KB)
Guidance note on changes to species protection provisions [PDF] (50 KB)
Guidance on changes to protected species licensing requirements. [PDF] (59 KB)
Guidance for possession, transport, sale and exchange of Annexe IV species – Animals of the Habitats Directive [PDF] (192 KB)
For species in woodlands:
www.forestry.gov.uk/england-protectedspecies
Guidance updated or created as a result of the 2009 amendments
Ecological focused guidance and sector specific operational guidance, introduced as a result of the 2009 amendments, are being drafted and will be accessible from here in due course. See questions 7 to 9 of Questions and Answers relating to the 2009 Amendment Regulations [PDF] (54 KB)
European Guidance on the Habitats Directive
Guidance document on the strict protection of animal species of Community interest under the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC , Final Version February 2007
5. Future Actions
- In order to keep our members up to speed, we would be happy to try to use this IEEM SESS website as a platform for any developments in this topic area – if we are to be successful we’d be reliant on members contacting us to help update the pages.
- Natural England’s Wildlife Management and Licensing team is exploring the potential to provide training workshops for practitioners working on licence applications. One option is for this be delivered through IEEM and IEEM members will be kept informed.
- Earlier this year, Natural England’s Wildlife Management and Licensing team hosted a series of workshops with stakeholders, including ecological consultants, which discussed possible refinements to the licensing process. Future workshops are likely to be held and Natural England will continue to keep consultants informed of any changes through mailshots and via their licensing pages on their website.
- The ARC Trust is carrying out current status assessments of great crested newts in the UK, and it is hoped that a predictive mapping tool for GCNs will be one of the outputs. This project is due for completion at the end of this year. Any amphibian records which members hold are of great value to the ARC Trust (and local ARG groups), and we can all help by submitting more of our records to local records centres (for more information please contact John Wilkinson johnw.wilkinson@arc-trust.org).
6. Suggestions/ideas floated/views and comments
A lot of issues were discussed at the conference and we’ve listed just a small number of the suggestions and ideas that were voiced. If you have further views and ideas surrounding current practices in great crested newt conservation, licensing and mitigation and wish to put them forward, please let us know and we will add them to these pages.
- Natural England has plans to update the Great Crested Newt Mitigation Guidelines.
- It would appear that an improvement to the flow of records data is much needed. For example licence GCN data could be transferred from the NE Wildlife Licensing Unit to the local biological records centres. Furthermore, consultant ecologists need to get better at providing their records to BRC’s
- The high level of interest in this event, which drew people in from all regions of the UK, suggests that there might be a demand for a national event on GCN licensing in the near future.