Preliminary ecological appraisals for London planning applications
A preliminary ecological appraisal is the first ecology step on a site: a records search and a walkover that say which habitats and protected species the land could hold, and whether the council will want further surveys. Our own team does the fieldwork and writes the report, for a fixed £625.
Fixed fee from £625 · all prices
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What a preliminary ecological appraisal is
The industry guidance for these reports, from the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), describes the appraisal as a rapid assessment of the ecological features present, or potentially present, on a site and its surroundings. It says an appraisal normally comprises a desk study and a walkover survey.
It is a screening step, not a full species survey. Its job is to tell you, cheaply and early, what the site is and what it could hold, so that the expensive fieldwork is only commissioned where it is justified.
Preliminary Ecological Appraisals
from £625
Every price is the full fixed fee you pay. No VAT is charged. Council application fees are paid to the council separately.
What you get
- A desk study of local wildlife records and designated sites around your address
- A walkover of the site by our team, with habitats mapped and photographed
- An assessment of which protected species the site could support
- A clear answer on whether bat, newt, reptile or other surveys are needed, and when
- Recommendations for avoiding harm, and for enhancements the council likes to see
- A report in the form your council's validation list expects, coordinated with your drawings
- Do you need one?
We check your proposal and site against the council's validation list and say so before you pay.
- Records search
We gather local wildlife records and designated sites near the address.
- Site walkover
A visit to map habitats and look for signs of protected species, in a month when that is possible.
- Report
What was found, the species the site could hold and any further surveys, with their survey seasons.
- Coordinated with drawings
Findings feed the plans and the application, so the council sees one consistent submission.
When the council asks for one
Natural England's standing advice for councils says preliminary ecological appraisals are useful for assessing if more detailed species or habitat surveys are required. Councils write the trigger into their local validation list, so the wording differs by borough.
We read your borough's list against your project and tell you if no report is needed. If the council has already asked you for one, send us its wording and we work from that.
Natural England's advice is that surveys should be carried out by a suitably qualified and licensed ecologist at the right time of year.
Why it comes before you submit
The same Natural England advice tells councils they should not usually attach planning conditions that ask for surveys, and not to decide an application until all the necessary surveys are in. A council that has not been given the surveys it needs has no reason to decide the application, so the appraisal belongs in the first submission.
That also means timing matters. Surveys have to be done at the right time of year, and the appraisal is how you find out early which ones. Great crested newt surveys run from mid-March to mid-June, and reptile surveys from April to mid-October, so a project that discovers the need in November may wait months.
What the council does with the report
Be aware of one limit, stated in CIEEM's own guidelines. Where an ecological report must accompany a planning application, the guidelines say it is not appropriate to submit a PEAR as part of a planning application in the ordinary case, because a PEA report is written to advise a client rather than to assess effects and commit to mitigation. They add that an impact assessment report based only on the appraisal data can be acceptable where no further surveys beyond the desk study and field survey are necessary.
So we say at the start which situation you are in. Where the appraisal finds nothing needing more survey, we write the findings up as the impact assessment the council can validate. Where it does, you know what is coming before you commit to a programme.
Who does the work, and whether it is licensed
Our own team carries out the appraisal and writes the report, with your drawings; no outside practice is involved. Natural England's advice is that surveys should be carried out by a suitably qualified and licensed ecologist at the right time of year. Where a survey needs that, we arrange the licensed person as part of the fixed fee.
Where the appraisal says bats could be present, our bat survey service takes that on. Where trees are affected, see the tree survey for planning.
Fee and what happens next
The fixed fee is £625, the total you pay, and no VAT is charged. It covers the records search, the walkover and the written report for a house, extension or small site. Any further species surveys the appraisal recommends are separate work and are quoted before they start. If you do not need a report, we tell you and you pay nothing.
Send the address and a line about the project. We check the borough's list, tell you whether a report is needed, and book the earliest suitable visit. Ecology also now sits next to biodiversity net gain, which we can check at the same time.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| useful for assessing if more detailed species or habitat surveys are required | Natural England, Protected species and development: advice for local planning authorities: (source wording: "Preliminary ecological appraisals are useful for assessing if more detailed species or habitat surveys are required") | www.gov.uk |
| not usually attach planning conditions that ask for surveys | Natural England, Protected species and development: advice for local planning authorities: (source wording: "You should not usually attach planning conditions that ask for surveys") | www.gov.uk |
| suitably qualified and licensed ecologist | Natural England, Protected species and development: advice for local planning authorities: (source wording: "make sure developers use a suitably qualified and licensed ecologist to carry out surveys at the right time of year") | www.gov.uk |
| mid-March to mid-June | Natural England, Protected species and development: advice for local planning authorities: Table 2, great crested newts (source wording: "Mid-March to mid-June (mid-April to end of June for eDNA)") | www.gov.uk |
| April to mid-October | Natural England, Protected species and development: advice for local planning authorities: Table 2, reptiles (source wording: "April to mid-October") | www.gov.uk |
| normally comprises a desk study and a walkover survey | CIEEM, Guidelines for Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (2nd ed., 2017): 1.2 (source wording: "A PEA normally comprises a desk study and a walkover survey") | cieem.net |
| not appropriate to submit a PEAR as part of a planning application | CIEEM, Guidelines for Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (2nd ed., 2017): 3.14 (source wording: "Under normal circumstances it is not appropriate to submit a PEAR as part of a planning application") | cieem.net |
| no further surveys beyond the desk study and field survey are necessary | CIEEM, Guidelines for Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (2nd ed., 2017): 3.15 (source wording: "No further surveys beyond the desk study and field survey are necessary to allow an assessment of ecological effects and to design appropriate mitigation") | cieem.net |
The full guide lives on our sister site
We still prepare this for a fixed £625. The detailed guide to it is on propertyarchitecture.co.uk, part of the same practice.