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Brownfield Sites
Services
ESS provides services for both active and disused Brownfield sites (vacant land formerly subject to development or human disturbance), including:
- Extended Phase 1 Habitat Survey
- Impact mitigation design and implementation
- Protected species and Habitat Management Plans
- Habitat enhancement, compensation or restoration measures
- Habitat creation
- Post-construction ecological monitoring
Legislative Context
Brownfield sites have increasing value to biodiversity in a developing urban landscape, and are no longer perceived as barren wastelands. Variable topography, hydrology and vegetation succession due to past disturbance creates habitat diversity for wildlife. Habitats include bare ground, embankments/cliffs and water-filled ditches that are important for basking, burrowing or nesting.
Due to habitat variety, wild flowers, invertebrates, reptiles, badgers, and certain birds (i.e. sand martin, little-ringed plover) are commonly found on brownfield sites. Most of these species are protected by conservation legislation, the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) or Local Biodiversity Action Plans. For example, a former clay extraction site at Orton Pit supports the largest known UK population of great-crested newt, which is a European protected species. In addition to species within brownfield sites, the overall habitat may be classified as ‘Open Mosaic Habitats on Previously Developed Land’, which is a Priority Habitat under the UKBAP.
European protected species (except for wild birds) are protected in national legislation by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as supported by the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c. ) Regulations 1994. European protected wild birds, and nationally important wild birds, animals and plants are protected by the The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended in England and Wales by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and as amended in Scotland by the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004).
Key Issues for developers
Wildlife and important habitat are likely to be present on brownfield sites even if the sites appear to be untidy, barren landscapes (see above). Therefore, brownfield sites will often require habitat and species surveys to assess impacts of development. The structural and spatial habitat diversity of brownfield sites presents a unique opportunity to accommodate important habitat features into overall site plans, and avoid potential impacts.
Brownfield sites provide an excellent opportunity for habitat enhancement, creation or net-biodiversity benefits, which may be a condition of planning consent for development. However, habitat enhancement or creation should not reduce existing biodiversity, for example, through large-scale intensive measures such as topsoiling and forest planting. Supportive and natural regeneration may provide more benefit to wildlife in the long-term and will incur lower costs than intensive methods.