Business Almost As Usual: To Confound Covid-19
James Blake Associates has all team members now working from home, with VPN, Office 365 emails and Microsoft Teams for conferencing purposes (plus skype/ Zoom as our clients require). Work is allocated in the normal way, weekly, onto team member goal sheets, who will work from home unless they have…
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Ecology and Arboriculture Surveys – Timing is Key
Ensure you have the right consultant that does what is needed the right way but knows when a survey is needed and when it is not. For example, a client recently asked JBA to check if they needed all the surveys recommended in the PA1 report. We found they did…
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A Rare Sighting
Some of our ecology team recently spotted this rare creature while undertaking monitoring work on a badger sett. There was some question we may have found an erythristic badger – much paler than the typical black and white badger, still with the same markings, but reddish-pink in colour. However, our…
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We’re Moving!
James Blake Associates Head Office will be moving from Lavenham to Bury St Edmunds this coming autumn, and we're also opening a new office in the heart of Cambridge. Both new beginnings spark exciting times ahead for the wider team. Bury is an excellent location for our business in terms…
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JBA Advise on Special Protection Area
East Anglia Group have secured resolution to grant for the proposed redevelopment of Great Yarmouth Marina. This new development will provide, amongst other things, residential dwellings, residential moorings, visitor moorings and one mooring specifically for the Broads Authority's use. James Blake Associates were appointed by East Anglia Group to provide…
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Chelsea Inspiring JBA’s Landscapes
Just in case you saw the Chelsea coverage on TV recently, I was very impressed with the garden by Andy Sturgeon, which embraced a naturalistic planting style very much in vogue right now. It works well, containing a lot more herbaceous plant material than past fixation on all-year-round evergreens dominating…
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A True Demonstration of ‘Going-Green’
These images are a real demonstration of the “Go-Green” message, and how JBA is going greener, faster, better and at a lower cost. JBA’s key point of difference is not just ‘Go-Green’ and not just ‘Value Innovation’ – it is the combining of these two great strengths, and this is…
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Application Success for New Dwellings in Norfolk
James Blake Associates provided landscape, ecology and arboricultural advice on a scheme which has just achieved Outline Planning Permission for approximately 205 dwellings from Broadland District Council, in the village of Rackheath. James Blake Associates carried out a Phase 1 Habitat Survey and protected species surveys as well as the…
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Revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) on the 19th of February 2019. There are few major changes to the text - the revisions focus on clarification of key points. The main changes are as follows: Footnote 37,…
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