ESPH SB Ashdown Forest Special Protection Area (SPA) Monitoring Strategy and Visitor Survey (ESPH132) - AWARD

Tender description

Wealden District Council are seeking to appoint suitably qualified and experienced consultants to devise an Ashdown Forest SPA monitoring strategy that will assist Wealden and other local authorities in identifying a long-term monitoring Framework to understand bird populations at Ashdown Forest and to assess the success of SANGs and access management at the SPA. The successful consultant shall also be required to devise and undertake a visitor survey at Ashdown Forest to provide evidence to inform the Wealden Local Plan and the application of the avoidance and mitigation strategy for Wealden and other relevant local authorities. In broad terms, the work required to be undertaken includes the following: (1) To generate and compile up-to-date and credible visitor use data to determine visitor access patterns and recreational use at Ashdown Forest SPA. (2) To devise an Ashdown Forest SPA monitoring strategy. These two projects are inter-linked in that the visitor survey methodology will form part of the SPA avoidance and mitigation monitoring strategy. **This project has now been awarded**