Badger Surveys

Stage 1 involves searching the site for sett’s and evidence of badger use. If these are within 30m of the development a stage 2 full badger survey will be required.  

These full surveys are undertaken using camera traps or traditional sand and hair traps to establish that the sett is ‘in use’ and active. It can be undertaken from February until November. It can often reveal if a sett is used as a main sett, annex, subsidiary or outlier sett type.   

Mitigation is then designed to avoid doing damage or exclude the badgers from the site and replace their habitat e.g. building a new sett for them. Licenses are issued between July and November only. The mitigation and or compensation will vary dependent on the sett type and what Natural England require e.g. a main sett will require a new sett to be built, the badgers to find it and then the old sett to be shut down. An outlier maybe shut down on a temporary basis and reopened at a later date.