Insufficient and inadequate ecological information has been submitted to enable the Local Planning Authority to properly assess the likely impacts of the proposed development on protected species and habitats, meaning that the presence, absence and potential use of the site by protected species cannot be reliably established. In the absence of this essential information, the Local Planning Authority cannot conclude with the necessary degree of certainty that the development would avoid harm to biodiversity, nor that appropriate mitigation or enhancement measures could be secured, and it has therefore not been satisfactorily demonstrated that the proposal would comply with relevant statutory protections. As such, and applying the precautionary principle, the proposal is contrary to Policy D20 of the Sedgemoor Local Plan (2011–2032), the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, and Section 15 of the National Planning Policy Framework.