• Bat Surveys and Mitigation

Bat Surveys and Mitigation

Bat surveys

If you suspect you have bats on a development site, the earlier that you can conduct a bat survey the better in order to minimise any delays to your project.

By carrying out a bat survey it is often possible to rule out the likelihood of bats using the site, allowing development to proceed. If bats are found to be present, we can work with you to find a way to proceed that is acceptable to the regulators and minimises the disturbance to the bats.

Bat licences

• A  protected species licence will be required whenever disturbance of bats or damage to their roosts is likely to occur.

• The protection of bat roosts applies even if no bats are present at the time of development.In practice, this means that bat surveys can only be carried out by a licenced ecological consultant. We can provide these specialists.

• If bat mitigation is required, a second development licence will be needed, accompanied by a detailed method statement setting out the activity to be carried out under the licence. We can produce these for you.

Bat mitigation

• By far the best option is to preserve the existing bat roosts and habitats.
• Involve bat ecologists at an early stage and, by identifying bat roosts and foraging patterns, they can make recommendations to accommodate the bats. This might involve slight design modifications to the building plans or landscaping.
• However, if existing bat roosts need to be modified or destroyed, then the bats must be protected, usually by appropriately timing the works for when bats are not roosting, and the bat roost must be replaced or reinstated.
• Bat boxes and even bat houses can sometimes be cost-effective options.
• It is important to also retain the bat foraging and commuting habitat as well as the bat roost. This can often be achieved by retaining certain hedges and trees within the landscape plan.

Bat survey and mitigation timings

Examples of bat work

Our bat specialists have carried out numerous bat surveys and mitigation projects. We have surveyed over 1000 buildings and 2000 trees. One example of our specialist bat survey and mitigation work was a Basing House for Hampshire County Council.

For more information on ' if, when and what'  bat surveys need to be carried out, please use our Bat survey guide

For specific help on your project, contact us or get us to call you: