GSL Ecology worked with major commercial property consultancy, as part of a multidisciplinary project team, on a major project in County Durham. This complicated project involved major refurbishment to a listed building, demolition of ancillary buildings, and construction of new state-of-the-art facilities on a secure site funded by the Home Office. Numerous bat roosts were present on site and our surveys identified these in time to allow us to secure the relevant EPS licences make sure the works could proceed to schedule.
The mitigation we designed included the construction of a new bat house prior to refurbishment of the listed building and demolition of a modern building containing a large maternity roost. The bat house was successfully, and quickly adopted by bats.
We provided on-site supervision of the licensed destruction of bat roost sites during building demolition and refurbishment, and safely removing any bats present and moving them to the new roost sites provided.
Other ecological issues we successfully addressed on site included pre-purchase ecological appraisal of the site; extended phase 1 and protected species scoping surveys; bespoke ecological reports to support planning applications; and providing habitat enhancement advice and ecology reports to help the project achieve the maximum Landscape and Ecology Credits possible under BREEAM assessment.
