An Ecological Clerk-of-Works (ECoW) may be required to carry out various tasks from an ecological watching brief to species translocations or overseeing the implementation of planning conditions and licenses. This may happen on development projects of any size where there is a likelihood of disturbance to sensitive species or habitats.

Hampshire Ecological Services regularly provides on-site ecological guidance to development projects. We can provide one or more suitably experienced and qualified ecologists to give valuable input throughout the construction phase. Our ecologists will guide and advise on how to avoid or minimise impacts through the supervision of ecological mitigation and compensation schemes. We also have specific experience in relation to protected species such as reptiles, bats, badger and great crested newt. We can provide ecological toolbox talks, inductions and site training to ensure that ecological constraints are clearly understood by your site staff. Good communication with contractors and project managers is essential and all of our staff have considerable experience in liaising with clients on ecological issues. We are familiar with working on construction sites and health and safety is also covered as our ECoW staff hold up-to-date CSCS cards and comply with strict HSE regulations in addition to any site rules.

Some of the typical duties we undertake are below:

• Topsoil stripping e.g. watching brief as part of reptile or newt translocations
• Destructive searches of buildings e.g. as part of bat EPS licensing
• Protected species capture and relocation (including newts and reptiles)
• Vegetation clearance to avoid nesting birds
• Habitat creation and management (including pond and grassland creation)
• Practical advice on mitigation to minimise the impact of works
• Advice and support in licensed European Protected Species projects
• Ecological auditing of conditions and licences.

Non-compliance with legislation, planning conditions or EPS licenses can result in long delays, heavy fines and even custodial sentences. An ECoW brings added value to a project, not just by avoiding delays and fines but by improving the reputation of developers and their projects through good publicity.

We are ready and able to undertake ECoW duties at short notice for long-term and short-term projects. If you would like to find out more about using an ECoW, please contact us for further details.