On the 22nd August 2019, NatureSpace and the Newt Conservation Partnership hosted a visit with key members of Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) at Shabbington Woods SSSI, at the request of the Council’s Ecology team. The aim of the trip was to engage Councillors and show them some of the habitat creation in the Vale of Aylesbury district as a result of the landscape-scale conservation strategy being delivered by the South Midlands Great Crested Newt District Licensing scheme. Aylesbury Vale District Council was one of the first Local Planning Authorities to adopt the NatureSpace District Licence scheme in England and the first to approve a development using it – the Waddesdon Greenway Walking and Cycle Route.
During the visit the Councillors and their guests met with Dr. Tom Tew (NatureSpace CEO) and Dr. Pascale Nicolet (Newt Conservation Partnership CEO), alongside AVDC Ecology Team members, Joanne Makin (Ecology Officer) and Sam Knowles (Protected Species Officer), to discuss District Licensing and introduce them to the site. More detail about the Shabbington Wood Complex Special Scientific Site of Interest (SSSI) can be found in a previous article here.
The Councillors had the opportunity to learn about great crested newt ecology, conservation status within the UK and why development within the South Midlands so often conflicts with the UK and EU laws and legislation protecting this species, whose numbers are declining within the UK. During the tour of Shabbington Woods SSSI, the AVDC Council members were shown ponds created by the Freshwater Habitats Trust through the ‘Million Ponds Project’ in 2011, as well as the freshwater and terrestrial habitat created with Developer funding in AVDC by the Newt Conservation Partnership in April 2018 as part of the District Licence Scheme. To date, in AVDC alone, the scheme has delivered as compensation for development 15 ponds that have been restored or created and over 26 ha of terrestrial habitat.
“For developers it’s a really great way of getting involved in trying to do a better thing for the local environment”
Cllr. Paul Urwin – Council Member for Environment, AVDC
Finally, the Councillors and their guests were invited to don some waders and pond dip the new ponds to demonstrate how quickly those woodland ponds become colonised by freshwater invertebrates, including great diving beetle and dragonfly larvae. The new ponds had also been colonised by plants, including stonewort – an ancient group of aquatic algae which have declined due to habitat loss and water pollution – and a neonate (adolescent) smooth newt. Unfortunately, no great crested newts were sighted during the exercise but earlier this year monitoring has confirmed the presence of great crested newts within three of the newly created ponds.
The visit ended with the Councillors and other members leaving with a heightened understanding of the District Licensing functions within the Vale of Aylesbury, the benefits it provides not only to great crested newt conservation but also developers and of course other freshwater wildlife! This video diary (credit Paul Griffiths – AVDC PR & Media Manager) summarised the different aspects of the District Licence scheme, how it operates within LPA’s and the thoughts taken away from Council members who attended the site visit.
Article Written by Sam Knowles (Protected Species Officer, Aylesbury Vale District Council) with contributions from the Newt Conservation Partnership
Featured image caption: Aylesbury Vale Council Leader, Cllr. Angela Macpherson (4th from right) joined by (from the left) Holly Williams and Dr Pascale Nicolet (Newt Conservation Partnership), Sam Knowles (Protected Species Officer, AVDC), Cllr Sir Beville Stanier, Cllr. Paul Urwin (AVDC) and Ed Campbell (Local Environmental Campaigner)
