The most common form of so-called baseline ecological assessments required by planning authorities to support a planning application at a site of proposed development, is a so-called Phase 1 Habitat Survey. The objective of the survey exercise is to collect data sufficient to catalogue and map habitats and ecological features, habitats and receptors within and adjacent to an application site, in strict accordance with the methodology set out by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, in their ‘JNCC handbook' for Phase 1 Habitat Survey; A Technique for Environmental Audit (1990.) However, often the resulting surveyor's report produced takes the form of what the ecological consulting industry knows as an Extended Phase 1 Habitat Survey. This ‘extended' element includes the procurement of biological records data from local authority offices e.g. Greater London's "GiGL" office; wildlife trusts e.g. Kent Wildlife Trust; and volunteer groups e.g. Surrey Bat Group. It further builds upon the standard survey criteria for habitat surveys, by including species lists and discussing the development's impact upon species such as birds, badgers, bats or reptiles—which may be utilising the site. Such species are protected by UK law, including (but not limited to) the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Habitats Regulations 2010 and EC Habitats Directive, to name three of the most wide ranging and powerful statutes.

Unique to a development site's characteristics, detailed Protected Species Surveys can be recommended as a result of a Phase 1 Habitat Survey. These species specific surveys e.g. a bat survey are used to inform the mitigation and compensation enhancements which ultimately will need to form part of the development's proposals. Instead, the information gained from an Extended Phase 1 Habitat Survey can also be recycled to produce an Ecological Management Plan, in order to enhance the wildlife value of the site and help architects attain ecology and land use credits for BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes assessments. In summary then, a Phase 1 Habitat Survey will highlight the ecological risks of your site. Why is this useful? Well, knowing planning risks presented by protected habitats and species at an early stage is likely to save developers time and money, as it avoids the need for tight timescale surveys and or severe programme delays.

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