Badgers and their setts are protected by law so they must be assessed. They can be found in a broad range of habitat types from rural to urban, which include woodlands, hedgerows, pastures and domestic gardens. These habitats are used for both foraging and sett building activities.
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/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.
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This involves a walkover of the entire site to locate any potential field signs for badgers.
These field signs may include latrines, footprints, hairs, scratching posts or setts.
If a sett is located during the walkover survey then the entrances will need to be monitored to determine presence/likely absence and the amount of activity at the sett.
This is completed using camera traps placed at the entrance of the holes. The monitoring will enable the appropriate sett type to be determined.
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/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.