Ecological survey delaying our application — is 6 months normal?

We submitted a full planning application for a 4-bedroom self-build in March. The council immediately flagged that we need a protected species survey because there's a pond 200m away.

We've now had three separate surveys (great crested newt, bat, and reptile) and each one has pushed the decision date back. We're now looking at September at the earliest.

Is this normal? The pond isn't even on our land. And the surveys all came back negative — no protected species found. Can we challenge the need for these surveys in the first place, or is it just the price of doing business near water?

Six months is unfortunately not unusual. Councils are terrified of getting it wrong on protected species because the legal consequences (and bad press) are severe.

The fact that all surveys came back negative is good, but the council may still require a mitigation strategy just to be safe. Ask your ecological consultant to write a short "absence report" that summarises the negative findings and confirms no further surveys are needed.

Good idea. Our ecologist is writing that now. Hopefully it gets things moving.