Protected species & development

A list of species covered by UK and European legislation can be found on Natural England’s Protected Species Lists. If you think that proposed development on the site will breach appropriate legislation, contact the relevant planning authority or search their website to determine whether or not there is a current application being considered for the site.

If there is an application currently being considered, find out if an ecological survey report has been submitted and whether or not it takes into account the species present. If not, inform the relevant planning officer and the planning authority ecologist. If permission has already been granted and the species in question has not been considered, it is still worth contacting the planning authority since further surveys may yet need to be done and there may still be time to adapt plans if necessary.

If development on a site is already underway and you suspect that activities will affect a protected species on that site in a way that is illegal (e.g. a barn conversion where bats have been seen but no licence has been obtained) then it is a civil matter rather than a planning one. In this case contact your local Wildlife Crime Officer  who may have time to investigate. It is always helpful in such instances to have evidence of the presence of protected species on the site before work started.

In all cases, please submit the record(s) to TVERC.