In a recent article published by New Civil Engineer in August, Tim Clark remarks that Organisational Licenses ‘are the answer’ to constructions issues and  is a ‘novel extension of a new licensing programme to cover a region rather than being applied on a site by site basis.’ The new Organisational Licence Scheme from NatureSpace and Network Rail’s Environment and Sustainability Manager Hamish Critchell-Ward, has demonstrated the success of using new licenses for larger areas.

Hamish told New Civil Engineer, “We worked out that if we had this in place during the previous five year control period (CP5), it would have saved us about £3M. There is definitely an efficiency in how we are able to deliver the works and get that programme security that we need.”

Hamish reflected that the traditional licence system didn’t always support the construction industry or produce the best outcomes for the environment.

“Essentially the old licencing technique has been in use for 20 years and the population numbers are great crested newts are still going down, things were not working.

“The former process was really labour intensive. We can’t do excavation or digging at certain times of year. We have to put a fencing in.

“We would have to get an ecologist on site to make sure they’ve moved their traps along that fencing so that we exclude groups outside of our worksite. And then they check those tracks to make sure that basically we’re humanely removing them.”

– Hamish Critchell-Ward, Rail’s Environment and Sustainability Manager, Network Rail.

District Licensing is available in selected authorities, with the NatureSpace Scheme currently operating in over 50 local councils. The scheme uses an Impact Risk Map which accurately predicts the likelihood of newt presence through analysis of habitat suitability in each area. The colour coded zones indicate the likely presence of great crested newts —red being the most important area for great crested newts (and therefore with the highest potential impact) and white indicating a low probability of their presence.

Each case enquiry has a net impact assessment to help decide the level of compensation a developer should pay to undertake their works. For the Network Rail Organisational Licence, this applies to any relevant works to the railway up to a distance of 10km from the rail line.

Network Rail compared the costs of standard licensing to District Licensing from a 2017 line specific upgrade project. The comparison showed that the costs for this project to be £400,000 for a single site-specific licence, yet under the NSP Organisational Scheme the equivalent works and costs would only be £35,000.

Hamish said: “Natural England is very progressive in its outlook. It said that it is really interested in looking at other opportunities where other infrastructure organisations can operate like this as well. So in terms of leading that, it is on board, and we’re hopefully showing people how it’s done.”

If you would like further information on the NatureSpace Scheme or are interested in looking at Organisational Licenses, please contact us.