Badgers (Meles meles)
Badgers are very social and live in groups in a number of setts linked by pathways, within their home range. The badgers occupy a wide range of habitats including woodland, urban areas, quarries, coastal areas etc. The setts are excavated underground in free draining soil, normally where there is scrub to provide shelter for the sett. Badgers are active throughout the year but wintertime is when they are least active. GLM Ecology are specialists and have extensive experience in badger survey and mitigation. Survey techniques used include assessment of population size, status of setts and range of foraging habitats.

Legislation
Both badgers and their setts are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. It is therefore, in summary, an offense to disturb a badger when it is occupying a sett, or damage or destroy a sett to obstruct access to, or any entrance of a badger sett.

Mitigation
If badgers are found to be present in or around a development site and that disturbance to that sett may occur, then a licence is required if work involves the need to have a planned closure, or exclusion of a sett. The licence is likely to be granted out with the breeding season, therefore between July and November inclusive. This makes it crucial to consider badgers at the very early stages in the development process. An application for a licence is required in advance of any proposed work, as a licence cannot be issued retrospectively and any work that disturbs badgers without a licence is illegal. Developers need to demonstrate that the badgers and their setts will be adequately protected during any development process and that disturbance will be kept to a minimum.