The development can be authorised under Cherwell District Council’s great crested newt district licence (approved by Natural England). This means that the developer can opt into joining the scheme as part of their developments planning application before great crested newt surveys are carried out, ie before the presence of great crested newts is known. This is achieved by contacting the delivery body (NatureSpace), who conduct an assessment to confirm that the development is eligible for this scheme.
Once a developer has joined the scheme, NatureSpace carry out a metric assessment, which embeds the mitigation hierarchy and identifies what level of compensation is required. Off-site compensation, monitoring and long-term habitat management is delivered by The Newt Conservation Partnership (NCP), a not-for-profit organisation. Compensation effort is focused on key high-quality habitats as part of a landscape-scale conservation plan for great crested newts.
All associated costs in joining the scheme are dependent on the development size, location (where it is sited on the ‘risk zones map’) and impacts. These are confirmed by NatureSpace once the developer has joined the scheme and before planning permission is granted by the local planning authority.
