Barn Owl Trust launches new Planners Guide (From Smallholder)

Barn Owl Trust launches new Planners Guide

4:10pm Wednesday 17th June 2009

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Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications.

What needs to happen: A Guide for Planners Conservation charity, the Barn Owl Trust launches a new document this week, ‘Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications’. The guide is a landmark publication for Barn Owl conservation. It is currently the only document of its kind and brings together all the information required by planners and applicants regarding Barn Owls. ‘Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications’ is written by the Barn Owl Trust and funded and endorsed by Natural England. This innovative new document has taken two years to complete and aims to help both planners and applicants address their obligations to biodiversity (and therefore Barn Owls) by presenting information relevant to each party in a clear and concise format. The guide aims to dispel any mystery surrounding planning and biodiversity, and attempts to give standardisation to the planning process for all parties concerned.

David Ramsden, Head of Conservation at the Barn Owl Trust said “Barn conversions that don’t include barn owls are a major problem and there are so many sites where birds have been needlessly evicted. We are delighted with this new publication and believe the new guide ‘Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications’ will help streamline the whole planning process whilst ensuring that the bird’s needs are taken fully into account. I would love to think that by simplifying the process, planners and applicants will be better able to protect Barn Owls at every stage of building works and ensure that permanent provision for the birds is incorporated into barn conversions”.

'Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications’ is available in pdf file format from the Barn Owl Trust website www.barnowltrust.org.uk and Natural England websites, or by contacting the Barn Owl Trust by email: info@barnowltrust.org.uk