W.ith Growing The cost of inflation-busting labor and construction materials, homeowners starting renewal projects have to increase their budget before putting a hoe in the ground.
But.
The issue came in the headlines Last November, with a £ 100 meter spending on a bat tunnel by HS2, but it is not only a high -budget railway plans that are affected by the conservation of flying mammals.
Volunteer groups, home owners and landlords are paying thousands of pounds for bat surveys alone, even new labor government before working on any expensive measures to protect animals as part of a planning system Wants to improve,
And while protectionists say to damage mitigation Bat‘The country’s ecosystem requires habitat to protect an important player, other people claim that the process has become bureaucracy, and has become expensive.
Work examples include Heritage Revenglas and the team behind the Eskdale Railway, which creates a 4.6 meter high bat roosting tower after 47. Bat Roasting was found to be demolished in an old station building.
In bath, in ReversedA landlord paid around £ 250,000 at a window -free bat house before demolishing a farmhouse, while on an existing industrial property in Wrexham, North Wales, a developer had to install four bat boxes before the construction of three new units.
Bats are protected by the UK law, and therefore any project can eat, eat, eat or travel around a qualified ecologist. It may join Small tasks do small work in the form of window replacement and re-viring.
If evidence of bats is found, a second activity survey is probably necessary to identify species and numbers. This evaluation often requires bats to be active, and therefore only in addition to the winter months, and regularly in the morning and evening or in addition to different days or weeks of the week.
Finally, if it is estimated that bats are affected by growth, the ecology prepares a new report with suitable mitigation, often required from natural England before the work starts with a license.
“Mitigation can occur by mild measures, such as placing a bat box on the outer walls or nearby trees, in more complex solutions, such as providing a bat scaffolding in a building or creating a bat corridor to maintain safe routes for forging.”
“In cases where a large bat scaffolding is required, mitigation measures can be more widespread and may include creating a dedicated roasting spaces with appropriate conditions.”
£ 10,000 ‘Bat Hotel’
Sir Nicholas Kolaries, a former media executive, who was appointed the provost of Aton College last year, said Independent He was forced to pay £ 10,000 for a “Bat Hotel”-Technically known as a bat scaffolding-he was converting to his Warsestersire Home, Volvarturt Hall 12 years ago in a part-medieval barn.
He said that the bat box and bat beam were also required inside the “respiratory membrane” to plan approval after the detection equipment of ultrasonic, he said, raised a possible flight of a bat inside the barn over a period of two weeks.
But for more than a decade, Sir Nicholas claimed that there is no bats in a bats scaffolding, and they prefer to live in the roof of their house.
The president of the historic royal palaces said: “I think many people in the bat industry realize that it is, but they are lucky that it stumbles. It is like a closed shop. When you want to do something. [renovate a property] You need to go to the small list of bat experts and then they go to lick their lips. ,
He also blamed the industry for the deterioration of the “beautiful” rural areas and the deterioration of outbuilding, and questioned how some of the species of the bat were threatened in the areas of the country.
“As a country we are giving a huge punishment to present people in our heritage and in the beauty of rural areas in a very easy and well -paid manner,” Sir Nicholas said.
Eleven bat species of breeding in Britain are monitored, according to the Bat Conservation Trust, a long -term decline in the number has not been faced. However, Trust, in its recently published National Bat Monitoring Program, Said that short -term trends suggested a low increase in population, and some emerging declines in areas.
The trust said that bats helped to regulate healthy ecosystems and need to protect against dangers including farming and development. A spokesperson said that in the media and from politicians, complaints on delays and costs related to bats fed in “misleading rhetoric”.
In ReversedA site manager of a family -run builder said that a customer had to build a £ 250,000 “bat house”, which was 25 meters at a distance of 25 meters before demolishing a farmhouse for £ 5m new property in the bath.
Manager, Nick, who did not want to give his nickname, told Independent: “An ecologist came, had a look at the farmhouse, and as soon as he found the bat drops, it was more work that we had to do.
“The client had to build a bat roast, a bat house as you call it, but I don’t think there were many bats that finished using blinking things. The building ban was ridiculous. They were ridiculous. They were ridiculous. They were ridiculous. They were ridiculous. They were ridiculous. [ecologists] It seems that there is a lot of power and control what is going on. ,
David Patcht, owner of Wirral-based Azzurri Chartered Architects, said that a customer had a £ 3M project ready for approval to convert the offices in the Town in Oxfordshire in January, but delayed the need to survey a bat survey in May.
The report showed no evidence of bats on the site last month. However, Mr. Pachhet said that his “exaggerated” customer will now have to wait to build by next year.
They told Independent: “When they came to the survey, four people turned on the site, on each corner of a building. They stayed for about three hours and saw no bats. The report costs £ 1,200, the cost of futile delay for the project is thousand
Bats play an important role in ecosystems
Sally’s Chief Executive of Membership Body Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, Sally’s Heans strongly responded to criticism, saying that it was the job of ecology to help people in avoiding living within the law and avoiding damage to bats.
Ms. Heans also highlighted the importance of bats, stating that each animal eats 4,000 insects one night that would otherwise spread human, plant and animal diseases.
He told Independent: “Unfortunately, as maximum of their natural habitat is destroyed, bats come to rely as a faster artificial structures, such as roof locations and barn, living places.
“As a result, as they are protected by the law, we have to find ways to ensure that the house improves and renovation work avoid damage to bats if they are present or, if they risk damage to bats, they are reduced to those losses.”
He said that the £ 500 of a bat survey, including maps and old records -included travel and year -to -year experience, was not inappropriate. And he said that some ecologicalists were misbehaved or threatened for his service.
He said: “We know about this effect on house improvement projects, but ecologists are actually trying their best to help home owners and make it as painless as possible.
“Of course there will be some wicked ecologists who try to earn more money than this, but they are relatively low and the entire profession should not be made a goat of sacrifice as a result.”
Labor is reviewing the process with a proposed plan and infrastructure bill that includes environmental development schemes that will allow the back of a project that can cause legally protected sites or wildlife to pay to pay in nature restoration funds.
But there has been there Strong opposition For the bill.
Richard Benvel, Chief Executive Officer of the Link coalition of wildlife and rural areas, said: “This will leave the chalk streams and unsafe species and irreparable houses such as the ancient Woodlands, which will be exposed for more indefinite development than ever before.”
A government spokesperson said: “This government has inherited a failed system that blocks economic growth and does nothing to recover nature.
“That’s why we will streamline procedures for environmental regulation, which involves simplifying guidance to protect bats and their houses without blocking vital new homes and infrastructure.
“More widely, the new nature restoration fund will also protect permanent reforms for nature and help to fix the failed situation by removing the time intensive and expensive processes to support the construction of 1.5 million new houses.”
