Bat Presence / Absence surveys were carried out on a barn building in Frodsham, Cheshire in July 2016. The client wishes to convert the barn into a residential dwelling, which will involve its demolition. Presence / absence surveys confirmed that the barn was used as a maternity roost for brown long-eared bats. Maternity roosts are extremely important to roosting bats as they are sites where bats give birth and raise their young during the summer months. Bats return to these sites ever year to give birth and, if disturbed, they may abandon their young and leave the maternity colony. The barn was also used by roosting common and soprano pipistrelle bats, and a low number of Natterer’s bats.
Due to the presence of a roost of high conservation importance (the maternity roost), and the fact that four species of bats were found roosting in the barn, this development had to proceed under a full European Protected Species Mitigation Licence (EPSML). Furthermore, in order to compensate for the loss of the maternity roost, a dedicated bat loft was designed and installed into the roof void of a new garage that was constructed as part of the development. A suite of bat boxes and bat access tiles were also installed in the surrounding area and on the building in order to provide roosting opportunities for the other species found roosting on site.
As of 2019, UES have completed the monitoring surveys of the dedicated bat roost. These monitoring surveys are required as part of the EPSML in order to ensure that the compensation measures have proved successful. With the help of our experienced ecologists, the bespoke bat loft was found to contain a maternity colony of brown long-eared bats and have therefore proved successful.
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