For UK ecological consultants
Every Thursday, EcologyLead sends you the applications and permissions in your patch that are about to need an ecologist – scored, explained, and filtered to exclude the ones where a consultant is already on board.
Free plan for up to two areas. Paid plans add instant alerts. Cancel any month.
The problem
Around 100 ecology-related condition applications are submitted across the UK every week. Thousands more permissions are granted carrying a biodiversity gain obligation that normally needs an ecologist to discharge. All of it is public. None of it is sorted, scored, or sent to you.
The free council alerts give you every application within a quarter of a mile of a postcode – extensions, fences, signage. The construction lead platforms typically cost £5,000–£10,000 a year and are built around £10m schemes, not a £600 preliminary appraisal. We couldn’t find anything aimed at a practice of three ecologists.
What lands in your inbox
A scheme has just been approved. A Biodiversity Gain Plan must be approved before a spade goes in the ground, and it is normally prepared by an ecologist. The purchase hasn’t happened yet – this is the earliest point at which you can win it.
CEMPs, LEMPs, biodiversity gain plans, great crested newt conditions, habitat management and monitoring plans. Proof of a funded ecological obligation on a named site – and HMMPs run for thirty years.
Barn conversions, Class Q prior approvals, demolitions, re-roofing, solar on open land – filtered to those where no ecologist appears to be engaged yet, and weighted by what’s designated nearby.
Real alerts, real applications
Every row below is a genuine UK planning record. Nothing here is illustrative.
| Site | Authority | Reference | Why it’s on your list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bramcote Leisure Centre, Nottinghamshire | Broxtowe | 26/00619/DOC |
Biodiversity Gain Plan and Habitat Management & Monitoring Plan being discharged – thirty-year tail |
| Ebbsfleet Academy, Swanscombe | Kent | KCC/DA/0132/2026 |
Construction Ecological Management Plan – build-phase supervision |
| Land east of Newbury College, Monks Lane | West Berkshire | 26/01955/COND |
Conditions 42 (biodiversity enhancements) and 43 (ecological surveys) on a major outline |
| Land at Tudor Avenue, Chieveley | West Berkshire | 26/01990/COND |
Precautionary biodiversity method statement – single dwelling, quick turnaround |
| Bickley Town Farm, Malpas | Cheshire West & Chester | 26/02728/FUL |
Barn conversions to five dwellings including partial demolition |
| The Gables, Russell Green, Wilby | Babergh Mid Suffolk | DC/26/03769 |
Class Q with partial demolition of agricultural buildings → seven dwellings |
The arithmetic
We don’t claim a conversion rate. We show you the applications; whether you win the work is your business. That is exactly why there’s a free plan and no contract.
Pricing
Straight answers
Often, yes – which is precisely why the two highest-value streams are post-permission. A biodiversity gain plan is produced after consent, not before. Condition discharges reveal sites with funded, ongoing ecological obligations. Stream three is the speculative one, and we score it lowest so you can ignore it on a busy week.
Where the council publishes the agent firm, yes – and that is roughly half the time. For the rest you get a direct link to the application on the council’s own portal, which always carries the full record. We’d rather tell you that up front than have you discover it in week two.
Planning applications are aggregated from UK planning authorities. Statutory designations – SSSIs, ancient woodland, nature reserves, conservation areas, tree preservation zones and green belt – come from the government’s own planning data service under the Open Government Licence. Constraint flags are indicative; always verify against the authority.
Yes. It is all public. You’d be filtering several thousand records a week, writing the classifiers, and cross-referencing designations by hand. That is the work you’re paying us not to do.
Survey season is roughly May to September, but condition discharge and gain plans run all year, and winter is when next season’s work is being arranged. If it still doesn’t suit, cancel in a click and come back in spring.
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