The original South Midlands district licences were granted by Natural England in February 2018 and as two-year licences, they will expire in February 2020. We have been working with Natural England to ensure a seamless licensing experience for developers and are pleased to announce that the district licences for the seven South Midlands* local planning authorities have just been renewed. The new licences will come into effect as soon as the old licences expire at midnight on 6th February 2020 and will run until February 2022.
We will be contacting all authorised developers in the coming weeks to ensure all authorisations are transferred to the new licences, where licensable works are ongoing. We will assume all the administrative burden for the transfers and there will be no cost to developers, no impact on working activities and no changes to requirements under the licences for developers.
The renewal of the South Midlands district licensing scheme, originally a pilot to test how a strategic approach to licensing and compensation could work, is testament to the hard work and commitment of all involved in the design, set-up and operation of this landscape-scale scheme. This approach to conservation is a great example of partnership working to bring together the public, private, NGO and academic sectors in a visionary scheme that delivers great benefits for the development industry, for planning authorities, for taxpayers and most importantly, for great crested newts.
*Aylesbury Vale District Council, Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council, Milton Keynes Council, Oxford City Council, South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of the White Horse District Council.
All Council contacts can be accessed here or to contact NatureSpace
