enims blog & news

It’s all par for the course

info@enims.co.uk (Super User) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:22:00 +0000

We've been in a really exciting partnership over the past year, which required us to conduct survey and mitigation works at golf courses. To be truthful, that type of land was new to us. But the woodland locations, mixture of different terrains and unique decorative features provided for interesting environmental work.

Golf courses are designed to be attractive, and as a result are often situated within areas of ancient woodland. These woodlands have been around since 1600 at the least. They are often a valuable biodiversity resource and are protected by Planning Policy Statement 9, which states that developments must not result in the loss or deterioration of such valuable habitats.

The well-kept fairways and greens of the golf courses, surrounded by areas of 'rough', provide excellent habitats for reptiles, allowing basking to occur with a source of cover close by. As a result it's important for us to make sure that these areas are thoroughly surveyed so we have a good understanding of the reptile species that are utilising these habitats.

And, there is a tendency for golf courses to have a large number of ornamental pond features. These decorations are attractive not only to humans – but to great crested newts too.

Therefore, each individual pond must be subject to detailed assessment techniques, including Habitat Suitability Indexes. These assessments look at the different characteristics of a pond and its surrounding area, and allow us to determine the likelihood that great crested newts are present.

The unique set of conditions at golf course development sites can make for quite complicated work – but as far as enims is concerned, it's all par for the course!

Safety first

info@enims.co.uk (Super User) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:21:00 +0000

Many organisations are implementing an Occupational Health and Safety Management System in order to keep pace with changing legislation, reduce and control health and safety risks and improve overall performance.

enims is working towards achieving the Occupational Health and Safety Management system OHSAS 18001 certification. This is an internationally recognised health and safety management system, that can be adopted by any organisation wishing to protect its workforce, aid legislative compliance and reduce risk. enims has completed the pre-audit stage of the accreditation, and the team is currently working to finish the final stages.

Fortunately, OHSAS 18001 is a flexible system, which is compatible with the other management standards that enims is accredited for – the ISO 9001 Quality Management certificate and the 1SO 14001 Environmental Management System accreditation.

Find out more about enims' accreditations

Find out more about Environmental Management Systems

Excellence at enims recognised by Highways Agency

info@enims.co.uk (Super User) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:42:00 +0000

National Highways Sector Schemes (NHSS) have been developed with the support of the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for works taking place along highways.

These programmes are in place to ensure that efforts are always conducted to the highest quality, and an accreditation is now mandatory for all contractors working for the Highways Agency.

The enims team are pleased to have been appointed as accredited agents under Section 18 of the scheme - 'for the environment and landscape including ecology'. This demonstrates that enims delivers environmental excellence at a level which the Highways Agency accepts as high quality.

The schemes ensure that all highways works are executed by appropriately trained and competent personnel, all processes are planned and that the services provided are of the highest quality.

Find out more about enims' services

Kevin McCloud completes ground-breaking housing development

info@enims.co.uk (Super User) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 09:21:28 +0000

Image courtesy of Haboakus

The highly-innovative, sustainable home development featured in the Channel 4 series 'Kevin's Grand Design' is now complete.

The development, known as 'The Triangle', incorporates sustainable and efficient technologies in order to produce affordable, environmentally-friendly housing. The properties were created by Hab Oakus – the partnership between Kevin McCloud's company Hab and housing group GreenSquare – and were featured on Channel 4 as part of their Great British Property Scandal series.

The forty-two homes are designed to be super insulated and incorporate a range of energy-saving features such as rain water harvesting and low water usage bathroom fittings. A lime thermal walling system absorbs CO2, reducing the carbon footprint of the development.

A further aim of the development is to encourage and enable people to live more environmentally-friendly and fulfilling lives. Provisions include communal gardening areas, bicycle storage units at each house and special computers that allow residents to track their energy use.

The cost of the development itself is surprising. The scheme works out at just £1,150/m2. This marks the start of a mass housing drive to roll out similar projects under the Hab banner. Kevin McCloud said: 'It should be possible to do Code for Sustainable Homes level five for the same amount of money. We are working on larger schemes.'

GreenSquare Chief Executive David Ashmore said: 'We're delighted to have completed our first Hab Oakus development and wish the residents at The Triangle a happy and comfortable future in their new homes. It's been great learning with, and from, Kevin and his team and the new residents.'

Watch the programme here

Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group enters administration

info@enims.co.uk (Beth Jewitt) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:32:00 +0000

The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) has entered administration. The advisory group, which was formed in 1969, provided advice to farmers and landowners.

The first blow came as Defra cut funding to the group following the most recent Comprehensive Spending Review. The organisation also faced increased competition for its services from individual consultants and other organisations. FWAG entered into discussions with The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and Masstock Arable to try and save its fate, but unfortunately neither organisation could agree terms to help it survive.

Speaking of the national charity at CropWorld Global 2011, Farming Minister Jim Paice acknowledged that in recent years farming advice and knowledge transfer had become 'confused and muddled'. A number of other organisations, including Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) had also been providing environmental advice to farmers at this point.

The AHDB is now likely to begin consolidating farm services, with Mr Paice requesting that the body begins working towards this goal. "Knowledge transfer is hugely important, but at the moment farmers are completely confused by the wealth of different people offering advice. I challenge the AHDB to see what role they can play in bringing it all together."

Concerns over false village green claims

info@enims.co.uk (Beth Jewitt) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:24:02 +0000

Councils in England and Wales are facing concerns regarding 'false' attempts to label land as village greens. The Local Government Association (LGA) has suggested that a number of recent claims have actually included beach huts, car parks and other land uses rather than actual village greens.

Under current legislation in England and Wales, an area of land may be claimed as a village green if it has been utilised for recreational purposes for a period of twenty years. However, the LGA states that planning rules are being subject to exploitation by 'vexatious claims' as a mechanism to prevent or delay new affordable housing developments. These claims are harmful to taxpayers in terms of costs of processing and judicial reviews, as well as preventing the creation of new jobs.

The Open Spaces Society argues that the majority of these claims are to protect genuine village greens. Kate Ashbrook, General Secretary of the Open Spaces Society claimed: "all the LGA appears to have done is present a small number of anecdotal cases."

The LGA is now calling on the government to give councils increased powers to tackle 'malicious, vexatious and incomplete proposals' at an early stage in the process. This means that councils will be able to quickly identify frivolous claims, and claw back costs from these applications.

David Parsons, chair of the LGA Environment and Housing Board, said: "The right balance needs to be reached between looking after genuine village greens and the provision of affordable housing, services and jobs which local areas badly need. Councils are reliable and can be trusted to perform this function effectively."

The sky’s the limit

info@enims.co.uk (Super User) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:21:28 +0000

It's been an interesting week at enims, as some of the team have spent it with their heads in the clouds! We've been on a fascinating tree climbing and aerial rescue course, which has taught us new techniques that we can use to provide an even better service to our partners.

Bats will often roost in particular tree features such as splits, crevices and lifted bark. Before we learned our new skills, we were restricted to a full programme of (very lengthy) bat emergence surveys at each site. But, as our new climbing skills allow us to get up close and personal with the trees we are assessing, our bat surveys can be much more efficient. By climbing the tree, we can use an endoscope to take a look inside these cracks and crevices, which is quicker and more cost effective than the bat emergence surveys.

We're already using our new skills across a number of development sites and highways, and are quite enjoying ourselves in the process. No vertigo sufferers here!

Bats in hiding

info@enims.co.uk (Super User) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:07:06 +0000

This winter has seen enims undertaking more and more bat surveys. Like many other creatures, bats don't enjoy the cold and spend the winter months in hibernation. Which is great for the bats, but not for us ecologists, as sleeping bats can be very tricky to spot.

Animals go into hibernation in the winter months to survive the extremes of a colder climate. They enter a period of deep sleep known as 'torpor' which reduces their metabolic rate and lowers body temperature so they can survive the harsh weather.

Bats are very particular and search for roosts which offer humidity, a stable, cool temperature and little disturbance. Which of course means that they are often hidden from sight. To cause further complications when conducting assessments, brown long-eared bats rest with their ears folded under their wings, which leaves them annoyingly resembling a species of mouse-eared bat.

Surprisingly, hibernating bats don't always keep their heads down for the entire winter. Depending on how well they have managed to feed before they begin their period of torpor, they may find the need to emerge from hibernation for short periods to top up their reserves and stave off hunger. So, if you thought your eyes were deceiving you, don't worry. You might still spot bats flapping around between October and February.