A two minute guide to bat surveys

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This guide focuses on “what are the key facts that I need to be aware of?”

Bat surveys are not optional

You and your local borough council planning office—and us—have absolutely no control over the need for a bat survey. The requirement to survey for bats and their habitat is defined by ODPM Circular 05/06 and PPS9, two planning policy guidance documents for local government—by central government. They state that where there is a reasonable likelihood (and how easy is that probability to define?) of protected species being present at your site, so you must provide mitigation proposals based upon scientifically robust survey results. In the absence of this, the local planning authority should refuse your application. Not good! Whatever you do, don’t assume bat surveys will get conditioned. Cheshire East lost a Supreme Court appeal of their prosecution for not dealing with protected species up front and properly in 2009. We haven’t seen surveys be conditioned for any site since.

Features suitable for roosting

If we had £10 for every person who listened to us talk on the phone and read our quotation which spells out clearly, that features suitable for roosting are a possible trigger for further assessment, and then called back to query our survey results and report … well, you get the idea. All bat consultants worth their salt use the 2007 Bat Conservation Trust guidelines for good practice when surveying for bats, as their basis for your site assessment. It contains on page 24 a flowchart that clearly points toward the design of more rigorous survey effort if features suitable for roosting are present at your building property. A detailed appraisal of the preferred habitat type of each species of bat can be found on page 49 and further, a table on page 50, which illustrates the types of site features that would necessitate a further survey effort, validate the diagram.

The take home point is that you shouldn’t automatically assume this is a box ticking exercise—it isn’t. You must be able to demonstrate using widely accepted scientific methods that your development doesn’t pose a risk to bats. Recall from high school science classes, that the more you test a theory can come up with the same answer, the stronger the evidence that supports that theory. So, the same is true with bats and your property. Survey in the day, and then several times at night between May and September—when bats are actually active—to prove you haven’t got bats making use of your building. This way, no amount of “habitat potential” identified by third party objectors or borough ecologists can jeopardize your application.

Mitigation must be appropriate

No bats = no mitigation and no problem. PPS9 does ask for the borough to seek biological enhancements but rarely does this form part of conditions of consent. However, if you have a so-called confirmed roost, you will need to provide mitigation to the planning authority pre-determination. This may be as simple as bat boxes or as complex as building a bat loft, but that will all be dependent upon the unique nature of your site and the results of the emergence surveys—the species of bats, population numbers and use of your site. If you’re destroying a roost (demolition), you’ll need a European protected species license. If you’re not destroying it, you probably wont.

Want to know more? Call one of our team today on 08450 176950 and we’ll spend as little or as much time as your need explaining it to you.