In order to support a planning application for housing development in Sandbach, our client, Bellway Homes, required an updated ecological report to include ecological surveys and mitigation and enhancement measures in order to best enhance the habitats that are being retained within the developed site.
The overall survey aim was to assess the site for ecological importance by producing an inventory of, and target notes for, habitats that occur within the development boundary. The purpose of this was to highlight any ecological constraints and/or opportunities and to scope the need for any further ecological surveys to inform potential mitigation of any impacts of the proposals.
Several ecological surveys have been carried out at the site in the past however Natural England requested that update surveys were conducted prior to any development work, and as a result, Cascade Consulting were commissioned to conduct extended amphibian surveys and reptile surveys of the site.