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Great crested newts and mitigation

The great crested newt breeds in small freshwater ponds and must live its life within a few hundred metres of these. It is, therefore, vulnerable to having its very restricted living space destroyed by development. To make matters worse, the type of habitat it likes is often found on the fringes of urban areas - even previously built-on "brownfield" sites - which are ripe for development.

The effects that any development would have on the GCN populations must be mitigated so that the population can continue to thrive by changing the development to avoid the area used by the newts, adjusting the scheme so that the newts are shifted from part of the area but provided with ample habitat elsewhere on the site or, in extreme cases, moving the newts to a piece of land especially prepared for them.

 Though GCNs clash with development in only a handful of cases each year in Scotland there is a vast experience of cases south of the border and mitigation techniques are well defined and guidance can be found in the Great crested newt Mitigation Guidelines (2011). external site

 Remember that it is illegal to kill or injure a GCN, destroy their breeding sites or resting places or disturb them in these places or disturb them in such away as to impair their ability to survive or reproduce so all but the simplest mitigation work can only be allowed under a licence from Scottish Natural Heritage. Local Authorities will not issue planning permission for a development unless the proposed mitigation work qualifies for a licence.

 If great crested newt are known to live on or near a development site and as part od a licence application, a Species Protection Plan should be produced. This should include;

 A survey of the newts and their habitat to show the level of population and what habitat they are using. This will allow the level of mitigation which is required to be judged.

 An assessment of the effects of the development on the newts if no mitigation is carried out.

 A proposal for mitigation with details of habitat offered in compensation, how the newts will be excluded from the development land, trapped etc and also a follow on scheme to monitor and maintain the viability of the population effected.