Historic buildings can very often be a home to not only the building’s owners but also wild animals such as bats, barn owls and other nesting birds. Bats in particular favour older buildings due to certain characteristics in their construction and often location. There can often be no obvious signs to the owner that bats are present, and it requires expert knowledge and experience to be able to determine if they are.
All species of bat are protected in law and they are a material consideration in determining planning applications.
For this reason, it is now very often necessary for an applicant for planning permission or listed building consent to be required to submit with their application an expert assessment of whether bats are present in the building(s) affected by their proposals, and if so, how they would be affected by the proposals. This can lead to further more detailed surveys and mitigation strategies if bats are found.
Applicants should be aware of this requirement before they submit their application and ideally at an early stage of their design work. The discovery of protected species inevitably causes a rethink of proposals, and will normally result in some delay. The later this is done, the more significant or problematic that delay will be.
Building owners should also be aware of this issue when carrying out works to their buildings which do not require permission, such as minor repairs in roof spaces.
The draft guidance note which can be downloaded from this page gives further guidance on this from the borough council.
Further guidance on this topic can also be obtained from the following websites, or by calling one of the council’s Biodiversity Officers.
BDBC Biodiversity Checklist
English Heritage / Natural England: Bats in Traditional Buildings (PDF download of 6.25MB)
Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management
Bat Conservation Trust
Contact:
Biodiversity Officers
T: 01256 845261 or 845001
E: neighbourhood.dev@basingstoke.gov.uk
