Bats
Bat Boxes are frequently used to provide supplementary mitigation on development schemes involving bats
All British bats are legally protected and it is an offence to kill, capture, or disturb them, or to damage, destroy or obstruct access to their roosts. If a roost is affected by a development, then a European protected species licence is likely to be needed before development works can start.
Our large team of 10 licenced bat specialists is able to assist with such issues. We can put together a team for any size of project - often at very short notice - from conversion of a small barn to EIA assessments of roads or wind farms.
The licence application process can be slow and complex and requires a mitigation 'method statement' describing how bats will be conserved on site after development. Typical mitigation includes avoiding sensitive times of year, supervision of demolition by a licenced ecologist, fitting special roof tiles to provide bat access points and design and build of replacement roosts.
We strongly recommend survey and mitigation design commences early in the life of the project, to minimise delays as far as possible.