Conditions Ref Flora & Fauna

[Onoff]

If I was to hypothetically apply to knock down and rebuild, in terms of "damage to the environment" what conditions might be imposed to mitigate this, particularly in terms of native fauna & flora?

 

As we have:

 

- Bats

- Slow worms

- Adders

- Grass Snakes

- Newts

- Those bfo Roman snails  (presumably from Lullingstone).

- Dragonflies that look like they're from the Cretaceous period.

 

- Orchids of a type on their own making us an SSSI. We're already in the Green Belt and an AONB.

 

- Several mature trees, one close to the house. Tbh they're fantastic specimens, like the Tree of Life in Avatar  but the nearest (and "best" imo) is I'm sure starting to lift a path with it's roots and threaten the house. They're also a handy jumping off point to the roof for squirrels. (One beech, three "firs" and a cherry all planted by the previous owner btw).

 

Disturb or lift anything here and some creature will be residing there. Tbh I'd flatten and level the lot but leave a wildlife "haven" and perhaps large wildlife pond whilst being sensitive to rescue and relocation during the build.

 

Is there a general document available anywhere that goes into all this? I imagine it involves experts coming down and charging me £££ for a start.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Onoff

[SteamyTea]

31 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Is there a general document available anywhere that goes into all this

I am sure there are some handbooks on how to make napalm and agent orange.

Apply a year before application and then show them a lovely picture of what it could be i.e. of what you currently have.

 

When I did my module about the Town and Country Planning Act, I don't remember a single point reference at all.  I think this is part of the problem we have with planning the environment.

For every rule we have that says we must do something, we have at least one that says it is illegal.

[daiking]

I used to post somewhere where the stock answer to any domestic related issue (eg my neighbours are noisy or my washing machine has broken etc) was ‘Move house’.

 

I suspect it should be the same here.

[Onoff]

1 minute ago, daiking said:

I used to post somewhere where the stock answer to any domestic related issue (eg my neighbours are noisy or my washing machine has broken etc) was ‘Move house’.

 

I suspect it should be the same here.

 

Ah yes the easy way out!

 

Too much time, money and sentiment already invested in the plot. It's a rollercoaster I can't get off / hole I can't stop digging!

[daiking]

Clearly, you should continue making justifiable improvements to the fabric of the building but leave the rest of it alone.

[Onoff]

4 minutes ago, daiking said:

Clearly, you should continue making justifiable improvements to the fabric of the building but leave the rest of it alone.

 

I can't! Take the back patio. Seemingly formed by casting concrete slabs in situ, it slopes towards the house rather than away from it!

 

The cherry tree in the background is lifting it too:

 

 

We keep saying "we'll give it another year" then the bloody thing comes back with more fruit than ever and the birds love it. 

[ProDave]

Top Tip.

 

If you are thinking of redeveloping, get all the tree felling,. pruning, alterations done BEFORE the planning application and the TPO's get slapped on.

[Russell griffiths]

We had everything you mention on our site, we are also a sssi. 

 

By the time we put in our application we didn’t have any.

months before our application when the bats had finished nesting we foamed up every nook and cranny and washed the outside spotless 

all shrubs trees cut down and back hard, abiding with any regs, 

the grass mown very short

then I put up a reptile fence around the build site

 

we then had a full ecology survey carried out, they found NOTHING on site ,they actually declared the site was boring and of low importance. 

Perfect, everything we did was fully legal, I did not remove anything that we didn’t have consent for

 

looking at the rest of our site I know that within 6 months of work finishing it will be back to the jungle it was. 

 

I think you have to manipulate the situation to fit in to fit in with you. 

 

 

[PeterW]

6 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

I think you have to manipulate the situation to fit in to fit in with you. 

 

 

 

Sadly that is too true ...! Trees in any plot are subjective, and the application of regulations is so arbitrary it’s unreal. Decent (ie qualified and experienced) tree officers are few and far between and they don’t apply the rules consistently. 

 

I’ve just advised on a job where the “tree officer” stated that the “roots of the adjacent specimen beech to be protected” and gave a no dig zone of 6m radius. The sycamore (!!) which was showing signs of damage and decay in 3 places required a RPZ of 3.5m radius based on its size...

 

Email back from the tree officer told me I was looking at the wrong tree and she had “observed surface roots to 6m”... 

 

I sent a 2 page summary in line with BS5837 that the tree was not a specimen, the roots belonged to a scrub hedge that had been removed, and identified both the damage and decay, and the work required to the tree... and yep, she’s still asking for 6m ..!!

 

The last tree officer was a semi retired arborist, who had some interesting views but at least he know his trees..! This one has a BSc in Environmental Science.....

[newhome]

Is this a way of getting out of finishing the bathroom?  Re the cherry tree, can’t you buy a new one and plant it somewhere where it won’t be in the way of your current house / patio but also any future house if you went the new build route? You must have a view of the best location for a new house on that plot. By the time you get round to making any potential new house a reality the new tree will be bearing fruit and nuking the old one might not seem so bad. 

 

Firs aren’t generally the sort of trees worth protecting are they? So unless they’re not in the way I’d plan to get shot of those. Again nothing stopping you from planting more trees at the extremity of the plot, or further away from any building or potential building at least. If you have half an acre there must be scope for trees? 

[Ferdinand]

Think he wants a handmade cherrywood loo seat, and coffin.

[vivienz]

Depending on your point of view, it's lovely to have all the wildlife, but I would second the comments about manipulating the site now before you go anywhere near planning, not least because of how much it slows everything down.  Even if it's straight forward as ours was, it also costs a fortune to do something you were planning to do in the first place and uses money that could have been spent on the wildlife rather than red tape.

 

Definitely bung up all the entry/access points for the bats; you could also put bat boxes up on trees that will stay on the site; this will almost certainly keep the bats away as they never seem to like purpose built accommodation.

 

And chop down any trees at the beginning of winter outside of any nesting season and, again, before planning get a sniff of it.

[SteamyTea]

5 hours ago, PeterW said:

This one has a BSc in Environmental Science

So have I.  Does that mean I can write a report.

Simple pricing structure, 10% of build cost, about the same as an architect, and we know they add value.