Dry, Warm Spring Turns Cool
We have all seen the dry sunny and warm spring weather (common in recent years at times), now turn cloudier & cooler, as arctic air pushes down from the north, with an Icelandic high that would have brought extraordinary cold & wintry weather, back in Jan’ or Feb’. Grey, cool…
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Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) – A Quick Explanation
The National Planning Policy (NPPF) demands biodiversity net gain on new developments. Increasingly also nutrient neutrality: That's mostly nitrate and or phosphate discharge not increasing to water courses: Whilst sewage treatment can deal with this via chemical addition, but this is only possible where the system has the required infrastructure…
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Development Impacts on Tree Retention
Ten years ago, many developers preferred a clear site to develop: fortunately today I find most (but still not all) developers are little more enlightened, about the cost savings from retaining as much existing green infrastructure as possible in its original state, but also the benefit to the character and…
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Our own business
Our own business experience is mirrored across most sectors – as reported in this bulletin: Excepting that is, most notably, that we at JBA are very much more focussed on and driving towards ever greater levels of sustainability in our own business mechanics and in all that we propose and…
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James Blake Associates – Team – Breaking News
Samantha Rigg, Head of Ecology at JBA, has been recognised for her outstanding contribution to the practice this year and is promoted to Associate Director. In what has been a really tough year of covid and the extreme surges of work related to the impact of the pandemic on home…
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In answer to a client wanting to know if the shrubs eaten by muntjac deer
In answer to a client wanting to know if the shrubs eaten by muntjac deer, on a development site, was due to these shrubs being too immature on planting. This was as suggested by a resident managing the resident’s Man-Co. This is of course a case of a little knowledge…
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Feburary Far From Quiet
As the corridors of No. 10 rock from storm to storm, instead of tackling the economy, living standards or energy, so too the weather sees us like corks on a rough sea, as the normally quieter Northern Jet stream ramps up, to deliver a month long conveyor belt of changeable…
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The Demise of the BBC Licence Fee is Bad for Democracy
Whilst I realise anyone younger than 30 will be inclined to think that I am an old fart, one foot in the grave, I think the one advantage of being over 60 is the sobering perspective and sense of reason you acquire as your mortality is gradually absorbed with each…
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Christmas Trees – Are They Sustainable (or should we go artificial)?
There is a hot debate running in the office about the sustainability of buying a natural tree for Christmas – knowing it has been felled for a 2-week stint in our front living room – before being discarded. Having heard the sad lament of a good friend having bought an…
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