Our Company
Quants Environmental Ltd was formed in 2010 by Andrew Westgarth and fellow Director, Toby Fisher. Both Directors have accrued many years’ experience with Statutory Bodies and Multi-Disciplinary Consultancies, undertaking and managing ecological projects of notable scale, complexity and profile.
Quants Environmental has grown organically over many years and is proud to have developed and extended its regular client base. It is a deliberate business decision to rely on our small clients as much as our large clients, so it is in our own interests to provide the same level of service, irrespective of job size.
Our ecologists are not pure ecologists, spending all day in a laboratory or library; they are trained as applied and muddy-booted ecologists, used to working on site and alongside construction workers, clients and planners. As such, we train our staff from day one to ‘report as they find’, to look for solutions to problems rather than create them, and to pay extra attention to their own and fellow workers safety. We are practical and pragmatic, and deliver a traditional high quality service for a reasonable price. We listen to our clients before we act and understand that good communication is key to avoiding misunderstanding and confusion. Our methodology and reports are technically robust, fit for purpose, and capable of withstanding scrutiny for planning applications and appeals. Recommendations are clear and unambiguous; we always strive to provide best advice for our clients.
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Ecology can be summarised as ‘the study of interrelationships of living organisms and their environment’ (Ernst Haeckel, 1834). We encourage our staff to develop a wider understanding of the environment and its component parts, appreciating how the pieces of nature fit together. This sometimes means that our solutions to problems can be elegant in their simplicity and success, working with nature rather than against it.
Within the core staff of Quants, we have several ecologists holding Level 1 and Level 2 bat survey and great crested newt licences, and good all round in-house capability for all aspects of ecological survey, including staff with degree level botanical identification skills and excellent ornithologists. As a highly-regarded ornithologist, Toby Fisher has made representation at Public Inquiry for ecology and wetland birds, and Andrew Westgarth has worked on several Public Inquiry representations with regard to habitat and ecology. We have a developing arboricultural team, offering the same client focus and attention to project detail.
Our work spans the UK, depending on the size of the project, but we are especially active throughout the North of England (particularly North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire), as well as Derbyshire, Teesside and the North-East. Much of our work is repeat business from regular clients or word of mouth recommendations.
The range of projects we have been involved with is extensive; from numerous site surveys for linear developments and multiple large housing schemes, to surveys for private clients undertaking barn conversions; large scale GCN surveys utilising teams of surveyors for projects of national importance, to 5-year GCN monitoring programmes for NHS land; bird and bat collision monitoring for large wind farms, to arboricultural and ecological surveys for small planning applications.
All core staff are suitably qualified and are encouraged to hold Professional Memberships as appropriate. Staff hold First Aid certificates and receive regular on-going health and safety training. All staff are supported to obtain CSCS site cards.