The PEA aims to identify any protected sites, habitats and species in and adjacent to the site and to provide an initial indication of the likelihood of other protected species being present. The survey allows for an initial assessment of the potential ecological impacts of the proposed development, early recommendations to mitigate those effects and outlines any further survey effort that is required to comply with planning or wildlife legislation.
PEA is a two-stage process and comprises an ecological desk study followed by a site visit to undertake an Extended Phase 1 Habitat Survey.
Desk study searches for nearby sites designated for their conservation value and any ecological features such as ponds close to the site. A request is also made to the Local Ecological Records Centre (LERC) for any recent (within the last 10 years) local records of protected and priority species held on their database.
The LERC usually charge an administration fee for their service.
Phase 1 Habitat Survey entails a walkover of all accessible land within and adjacent to the site and maps the habitats present, recording the plant species in each and their abundance. The survey is extended to identify evidence of any protected and conservation priority species and to assess the suitability of the site habitats to support them.
Phase 1 Habitat Survey follows guidance outlined in the Handbook for Phase 1 Habitat Survey (JNCC 2010). The protected species habitat assessments and surveys comply with the current best practice guidelines for those species.
It is possible to undertake PEA all year but spring and summer are the optimal periods to do so. For more information please see our Survey Calendar >>>
At Castell Ecology, all of our PEA surveys provide additional value by including as standard:
and