McArthurs Warehouse
W ild Service have been providing ecological services to The Guinness Partnership and Nash Partnership in relation to the redevelopment of the derelict McArthur’s Yard site, one of the remaining undeveloped sites on Bristol’s harbourside near to SS Great Britain. The proposed development will comprise 147 residential homes, mixed commercial workspace and a café.
Our habitat management team conducted careful scrub clearance to facilitate access. Our ecological surveyors undertook a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal that included a detailed building inspection for bats. As the old buildings had potential to house roosting bats, bat activity surveys were undertaken to discover whether any bats were roosting. The dusk emergence and dawn re-entry surveys revealed a small population of common pipistrelle bats roosting in the buildings during summer. As there were only a small number of common pipistrelle bats, Elizabeth was able to use her Bat Mitigation Class Licence to obtain a special licence from Natural England to permit work to continue legally in accordance with a mitigation strategy to ensure that no bats were harmed during demolition works. Alternative roosting features were provided for the local bats in the form of bat boxes and site lighting was designed to avoid disturbing bat foraging routes. In addition to specific species advice, Wild Service also undertook a BREEAM assessment of the project to assess its sustainability from an ecological perspective.
