A new landscape scale approach to Great Crested Licensing piloted in Woking Borough last year will now be extended to Kent and Warwickshire. The Kent project will develop a county-wide conservation strategy for Great Crested Newts. It will look at all possible land-management mechanisms, including work on farms and protected sites such as National Nature Reserves. Six of Kent’s District Councils are signed up to develop strategic licensing strategies similar to that trialled in Woking. For developers, a district-wide licensing approach means they will have better certainty about where they can build, reducing housing delays. For nature, the project offers a net gain, with more habitat made available for Great Crested Newts at strategic places where it will have the most positive effects on the population. The Kent strategic project aims to restore GCN to favourable conservation status throughout the County. 

An assessment of the conservation status of great crested newts has been published on the Blog.