Mycelia for Local Authorities
A software tool to drive better environmental outcomes in less time. Includes end-to-end support for BNG, covering validation, assessment, monitoring, and reporting.
Mycelia is brilliant, we love the software. We really appreciate the simplicity and user friendliness of the tool.
Simone Turner, Ecology Officer, Hammersmith & Fulham Council
Mycelia helps Local Planning Authorities manage ecology and BNG
Mycelia is tailor-made to support local government teams with ecology, including every aspect of Biodiversity Net Gain – from validation and assessment, to monitoring and reporting.
Mycelia helps ecologists, planners, and validation officers to:
– Save time.
– Drive better environmental outcomes.
– Catch and manage risks.
– Generate value-for-money.
Everyone in the planning community needs to realise how difficult it would be to do all the validation and assessment work without Mycelia, and the hours and days saved by the software.
Lisa Malter, Ecologist, Eastleigh Borough Council
Mycelia helps solve the new challenges of ecology and BNG:
Ecological monitoring and reporting
The Environment Act 2021 requires you to monitor new things in new ways.
Getting this right requires ecological science.
Mycelia understands this, with a built-in BNG engine to automate analysis and reporting.
Validation and determination
Planning and validation teams have new responsibilities to assess ecological data.
Mycelia speeds this up with automatic checks and easy tools.
Whatever is coming next
The implications of ecology for Local Authorities are growing – flowing from Nature Recovery Strategies, Urban Greening, the Biodiversity Duty, and more.
Mycelia constantly evolves to provide more and wider support.
Mycelia has made it so easy to track habitats and pick out those bits in the Metric that are not quite right.
Carolyn Herbert, Ecology Officer, Isle of Wight Council
Mycelia helps grasp the new opportunities of ecology and BNG:
Better local environments
Enhancing nature can benefit people and communities – improving health, well-being, carbon reduction, and climate and flood resilience.
Mycelia catches risks and issues, to help ensure proposals are feasible and maximise benefits.
Revenue and resources for councils
BNG implementation carries costs, but councils can cover these through monitoring fees and pre-app charges, and even generate surpluses from habitat banking.
Mycelia makes ecological tasks faster and easier, enabling you to put BNG income towards expanding teams and improving services.
Supporting and retaining ecologists
Ecologists are increasingly vital for councils, but difficult to recruit and retain.
Council ecologists consistently say that Mycelia helps them to be more productive and happier in their roles.
If I ever leave Doncaster, I won’t go to a council that doesn’t have Mycelia.
Helen Markland, Principal Ecologist, Doncaster Council
Unlocking Mycelia’s benefits is typically cost-free
The cost of Mycelia (£10k/year all-inclusive for most LPAs) can be covered entirely by ring-fenced BNG funding, including:
– Defra BNG burdens funding.
– BNG monitoring fees.
Mycelia works so well that I was able to look through a BNG Metric live in a pre-app meeting – this is something I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise, and helped us move forward quickly there and then, avoiding potentially time-consuming follow-ons.
Des Hobson, Principal Ecological Consultant, Swindon Council
Mycelia allows me to review Metrics more quickly – for example 30 minutes instead of 2.5 hours for a relatively straightforward Metric.
Danielle Berry, Biodiversity and Countryside Officer, Cotswold District Council
Mycelia makes it much quicker to review the BNG Metric. It’s also great that I can use the automatic error checks in my responses.
Elizabeth Burrows, Senior Ecologist, Wiltshire Council
Mycelia brilliantly summarises the ecological problems I would have raised without the software, but it does it A LOT quicker. I love it!
Sarah Boyd, Ecologist, Eastleigh Borough Council
Support for Mycelia users
Find guides and resources, to answer your questions and help you get the most out of Mycelia.