New planning guidance means it is no longer simply a case of surveying for bat roost sites in buildings and trees: planners are now looking for the protection of bats in the wider landscape. ADAS Ecologists have developed a method for ensuring bats are fully accounted for in developments involving hedgerow removal.
Recent planning applications that ADAS has dealt with have emphasised that the issue of maintaining and enhancing connectivity and commuting routes is becoming and increasingly important material consideration in determining cases.
Under Planning Policy Statement 9 (PPS9) there is an obligation placed upon local authorities to approve developments that prevent harm to biodiversity and which incorporate features that will be beneficial to wildlife. In particular it suggests that maintaining networks of natural habitats is a key objective. In this context hedgerows can be a crucial element in providing habitat connectivity. PPS9 is also concerned with maintaining a hedgerow network (para 12) and supports the need to protect and enhance Habitats of Principle Importance (para 11) or priority Biodiversity Action Plan habitats.
Habitats of Principle Importance are also cited in Government Circular ODPM 06/2005 or Defra 01/2005 (Biodiversity and geological conservation – statutory obligations and their impact within the planning system; part III para 85) as ancient and/or species rich hedgerows (section 74 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000). This habitat has recently been re-defined by the Biodiversity Action Plan steering committee to refer to ‘Hedgerows’: with wider coverage than previously. Hedgerows are also frequently included in local Biodiversity Action Plans.
In addition to being a habitat for wildlife e.g. for nesting birds, hedgerows are important for a range of animals that move around the countryside, either on a daily basis, to find food, or seasonally to migrate from breeding sites to hibernation sites – as in the case for Great Crested Newts.
Schemes that significantly disrupt a hedgerow network may require significant mitigation in order to maintain biodiversity and meet the approval of the planning departments and Natural England. Fundamental to making an assessment of the impact on wildlife of hedgerow removal and severance is obtaining data on the species using hedges as habitat and for commuting and migration.
Recent work by ADAS on the Heysham to M6 link road north of Lancaster highlighted that 56 hedgerows either crossed the proposed route, and would be completely lost as linear wildlife connectors, or would be significantly curtailed by the scheme’s footprint. Of the potential users of this resource, bats were identified as a group that could be significantly affected by the severance and disruption of the scheme.
In order to determine the potential impact on bats ADAS developed a novel approach to monitoring bat movements along hedgerows. This has enabled us to fully inform the mitigation strategy based on the known levels of activity along t...
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