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East of England Cooperation
The BRMC is one of six Local Environmental Record Centres (LERCs) that cover the eastern region, the other five being:
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Environmental Records Centre (CPERC)
- Hertfordshire Environmental Records Centre (HERC)
- Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service (NBIS)
- Suffolk Biological Records Centre (SBRC)
- For Essex data please contact the Wildlife Trust
- The Essex Field Club may also be able to supply data for Essex
Staff from these LERCs meet regularly to exchange information, share best practice and develop our collective capability.
A document that showcases many of the services that we provide can be accessed HERE (PDF). As you can see from this our regional influence is extending into the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire LERCs, with whom we have increasingly-close contact.
Standard enquiry service
We have agreed a minimum standard that environmental consultants can expect from LERCs within the east of England. This service went live across the region (except in Essex) on 31st March 2011.
The main provisions of the standard enquiry service are:
- Records of species of conservation concern. (The BRMC categorizes these into six optional sub-categories for tailored requirements).
- A map of statutory and non-statutory site boundaries. (The BRMC includes these within site citations).
- No charge if no data are found by the data search.
- Completed within 10 working days (usually less).
- Inclusion of the most recent data held by the BRMC, with metadata available on the LERC's website describing its data holdings.
- Be sent out in a user-specified format, subject to licencing.
- Provision of information from an adjacent county at no extra charge if the search area straddles a county border. (Note this only applies within the eastern region, i.e. for Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire in the case of the BRMC).
A PDF leaflet explaining the standard service provided for consultants can be downloaded HERE.
Our Information Request Form allows all of the content of the standard enquiry service to be chosen by checking all the relevant boxes, but you also have the option to pick and choose just the sub-sets that you require. To see what you can expect from the BRMC please take a look at our example data search.
Data Management - Code of Conduct
The LERCs in the eastern region have collaborated to produce a code of conduct for the management of data. This ensures that we all operate to common quality standards for the importation, storage and dissemination of species data. The code of conduct can be accessed HERE.
Records template for environmental consultants
We encourage environmental consultants to submit records from their survey work to swell the volume of information available to all. If all consultants were to do this they will mutually benefit from each others findings.
A spreadsheet has been developed for any consultants wishing for direction on how to format records for submission to any of this region's LERCs. This should be self explanatory, but please contact any LERC if you require assistance.