Badgers and their setts are protected under UK legislation, and their presence needs to be considered in any development or building project that could affect them or their habitat.
Badgers can be found in a broad range of habitat types from rural to urban, which include woodlands, hedgerows, pastures and domestic gardens, and these habitats are used for both foraging and sett building activities. That is why any work such as vegetation clearance, groundworks, access tracks, extensions and new buildings could potentially affect the badgers or their setts.
It is a consideration of the Local Planning Authority (LPA) during the planning process that appropriate measures have been undertaken to consider the impacts on badgers when determining an application.
The survey aims to establish the presence or likely absence of badgers and the type of sett should it be present onsite. If you, your architect, planning agent or the LPA consider there is a likelihood of badgers being present or using the site then a survey must be carried out.
You can contact us for further advice.
Unlike other types of ecological survey, a badger survey can be conducted during any season because they don't hibernate. Due to their relevantly consistent activity throughout the year, we can look for signs of badgers whenever you need us to.
The report typically includes:
A description of the site
Background ecological records
The survey methodology
Weather conditions at the time of and leading up to the survey
Habitat assessment
Survey findings
Photographs of notable feautures
Plans showing the survey locations
Assessment of potential impacts
Recommendations
Mitigation measures where necessary
To find out if there are any badger field signs, we conduct a walkover of the entire site to locate any potential field signs for badgers.
These field signs may include latrines, footprints, hairs, scratching posts feeding signs, tracks, or setts.
If a sett is located during the walkover survey then the entrances will need to be monitored to determine presence or likely absence and the amount of activity at the sett. We do this to establish if any of the setts are in use or if they have been abandoned and track any activity using camera traps placed at the entrance of the holes.
The monitoring will enable the appropriate sett type to be determined and make sure that the correct type of action to be taken.
If the project is going to impact multiple setts then bait marking must be carried out to determine the territories of each badger clan and how they use the site and local area.
Once the appropriate survey effort has been completed for your project, a report must be written up to support your planning application. The report will detail information about the surveys, background data for the project area, findings from the surveys, what impact the development will have on these findings and recommendations to mitigate these impacts.
If it is found that badgers are present then a mitigation licence will need to be obtained from Natural England to enable the project to proceed legally. This may also be supported by a ‘mitigation strategy’ which will outline certain factors to consider during the development and provisions to provide badger continuous access to the current sett or a creation of a replacement sett.
If we find badgers in your proposed habitat then that doesn't necessarily mean the end of your project. What will most likely happen is a suggested alteration to your plan in order to accommodate for or make suitable measures to not disturb the badgers.
This could be as simple as changing work times so as to not disturb them, protecting retained habitat during the construction period, moving/creating new habitat to move them to or enhancing their habitat once construction is completed.
If you are unsure about any of this then our ecologists can advise you through the process and assist with reccomendations and documentation to make sure your project can go ahead.