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Ecology Capacity & Expertise 1. Would you like to receive the analyses of this nationwide benchmarking survey? If so, please tell us the email address of the person we should send the outputs to. No thank you. 2. How many in-house ecologists does your Local Planning Authority (LPA) have, in total (please state in number of Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs))? 5.8 FTE providing advice to Devon County Council (DCC) LPA, but also doing wider work within DCC and providing advice to other LPAs in Devon 3. How many in-house ecologists does your LPA have, in roles working on assessing planning applications (please state in number of FTEs)? Approximately 4 FTE and flexes with demand. This capacity includes providing advice to other Devon LPAs. 4. How many of your in-house ecologists have at least two years’ professional experience working as an ecologist? 5.8 FTE 5. Do you get ecological support from external advisors? If so, how many days’/ hours’ support did you obtain in financial year 2024/25, and how much did this cost the LPA? Yes, in relation to consultancy advice for DCC and district schemes. Between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025, 722.5 hours of ecology support cost £30,489.63 excluding VAT. 6. Planning application fees increased significantly on 1 April 2025. How much of this additional funding do you plan to spend on improving your capacity to process BNG (e.g. on ecologists, other staff, software, other) None.
Pre-application advice 7. Do you offer Biodiversity Pre-Application advice as a paid-for service? Yes. Validation 8. Has your LPA introduced local validation requirements for BNG submissions, in addition to the national validation requirements? (Yes/No) Yes. If yes, please briefly outline these or provide a link to the relevant documentation. This can be seen online at: Validation requirements – Planning Devon BNG Statement for Validation July 2024 9. Do you require that all planning applications subject to mandatory BNG include a Biodiversity Metric in its original Excel format (not another format such as pdf)? Yes. 10. Do you ensure that the Biodiversity Metric is a statutory version? If so, how? Yes. By manually checking the version and title. This is also checked by an ecology officer during the consultation. 11. Do you ensure that the Biodiversity Metric has not been tampered with, for example by changing the Excel formulae? If so, how? No – Ecological consultants submitting reports need to meet legislative requirements and professional registration standards and this should be enough of a deterrent to falsifying data. 12. Do you ensure that the Biodiversity Metric contains information about the baseline habitats and that this information does not contain any errors (such as incomplete rows or Excel formulae violations)? If so, how? Yes. An initial check for errors is conducted. Any queries identified are raised with ecology officer. This is also checked by an ecology officer during the consultation. 13. Do you ensure that the area covered by the baseline information in the Biodiversity Metric matches the area within the red line boundary? If so, how? Yes, the area in the metric is checked against the area in Mastergov. This is also checked by an ecology officer during the consultation. 14. If an application claims the de minimis exemption from BNG, do you check whether the exemption applies before validating the application? If so, how? Yes. Visual check against aerial imagery. 15. If an application claims the self-build / custom-build exemption from BNG, do you check whether the exemption applies before validating the application? If so, how? DCC does not handle Class C (Residential) planning applications. 16. Since 1 January 2025, how many retrospective applications have you received, that if they had not been retrospective would have been subject to mandatory BNG? Three, of which two were exempt from BNG for reasons other than being retrospective, while the other did propose BNG.
Determination/assessment 17. Prior to determining an application, do you check whether the biodiversity data and information submitted as part of the application create any concerns, for example risks to valuable habitats and/or unrealistic proposals? If so, how? Yes, an ecologist reviews the information. 18. Prior to determining an application, do you make an assessment as to whether any on-site habitats are likely to be defined as significant (and therefore need to be secured)? If so, how? Yes, an ecologist reviews the information, based on this criteria: Planning Guidance 19. Prior to determining an application, do you make an assessment as to whether any legal instruments are likely to be required to secure habitats, such as planning conditions or Section 106 Agreements? If so, how? Yes, the ecologist flags where they believe a S106 is appropriate to secure the monitoring, and this is discussed with the case officer 20. Prior to determining an application, do you seek information from the applicant as to how they plan to discharge the BNG condition? (E.g. through what combination of on-site BNG, off-site BNG, and statutory credits.) Yes. With reference to the Devon BNG Statement for Validation July 2024 (see the link in response to question 8 above)– applicants inform us either through this checklist, through their reporting or through confirmation if required through the consultation process. 1. Where the applicant is likely to have a shortfall of on-site BNG, do you proactively inform them of options for sourcing off-site Biodiversity Units? If so, how? Yes. DCC provide a platform for local providers to advertise themselves and their habitat banks: Devon Biodiversity Net Gain Map – Environment. 2. Where the applicant is likely to have an on-site shortfall of less than 0.25 Biodiversity Units, do you proactively inform them that they are permitted to proceed straight to the use of statutory credits? If so, how? Not as a matter of process. They would be informed through the formal consultation. Condition discharge 21. Prior to discharging the Biodiversity Gain deemed condition, do you check whether the condition discharge application includes a Biodiversity Metric in its original Excel format (not another format such as pdf)? If so, how? Yes. Through the formal discharge of conditions consultation process. 22. Do you ensure that the Biodiversity Metric is a statutory version? If so, how? Yes. By manually viewing and checking the metric. 23. Do you ensure that the Biodiversity Metric has not been tampered with, for example by changing the Excel formulae? If so, how? No. See question 11. 24. Do you ensure that the Biodiversity Metric follows all of the BNG requirements for discharge, including that it contains no errors whatsoever unless the applicant has purchased statutory credits? If so, how? Yes. Review by experienced ecology officers. 25. If the applicant has purchased statutory credits as part of their approach to discharging the condition: 1. Do you ensure that the applicant had the LPA’s permission, where necessary, to use statutory credits? If so, how? The information is requested through DCC’s BNG validation requirements, or through the formal consultation if necessary. 2. Do you require proof of purchase of the statutory credits? Yes. 3. Do you ensure that the applicant has purchased the correct numbers and types of statutory credits? If so, how? Yes. No examples yet, but a DCC ecology officer will check this information by ensuring the metric is fully completed and checking the credit tiers against costs on the UK government website.
Monitoring 26. What legal approach do you use to collect BNG monitoring fees from applicants (Section 106, Unilateral Undertaking, other please explain)? To date, DCC has only used Section 106 for this purpose. 27. Do you collect BNG monitoring fees in a single lump sum, or spread out over the 30 years? If spread out, on what schedule? No set protocol. Case-by-case basis negotiated with the agreement.
Enforcement 28. How do you inform applicants that planning permission is subject to the Biodiversity Gain deemed condition? E.g. is this listed as part of the main set of conditions, noted in a separate informative, or notified in some other way (please specify)? An informative is included on any planning consent that is subject to the BNG condition. The regulations are clear that it can’t be included in the main list of conditions. 29. Do you ensure that development does not commence without discharging the Biodiversity Gain deemed condition? If so, how? We do not have any specific mechanism for monitoring commencement in terms of BNG. This would be picked up through our existing monitoring arrangements (for minerals and waste sites). 30. Have any developments in your area, where permission was subject to the Biodiversity Gain deemed condition, commenced without discharging the condition? If so, please state how many and identify them e.g. by planning reference number. Excluding retrospective applications, none have been identified.
Biodiversity Duty Reporting 31. Has a specific officer or role been designated as responsible for preparing and delivering your LPA’s Biodiversity Duty report, due in Q1 2026? (Yes/No) If yes, please state the job title responsible. No 32. Does your LPA currently have software or specific digital tools in place to support the data collection and reporting requirements for the Biodiversity Duty? (Yes/No/Exploring Options). If yes, please provide the name of the tool(s). Yes. The native MasterGov BNG management is being used for planning applications. The DCC Natural Environment Team are logging all relevant information separately. |