UES were commissioned to undertake a bat scoping survey of a former industrial building in the city centre of Leicester, Leicestershire. Our client wishes to undertake bat surveys to attain planning permission for the change of use of the building to a number of flats.
Bats are a European protected species and it is an offence to:
- deliberately or recklessly disturb a bat in its roost
- damage or destroy a place used by bats for breeding or resting, even if bats are not using the roost at the time
- possess or sell bats
- intentionally or recklessly obstruct access to a bat roost
The bat scoping survey is the first step to acquiring planning permission as it allows our trained and experienced bat consultants to establish the suitability of the building to support roosting bats. Should the building have the potential to support roosting bats, further surveys may be required to determine the presence or absence of roosting bats.
In this case, the structure is a large industrial building situated in the city centre of Leicester. The building is therefore subject to high levels of noise and light disturbance and the surrounding habitats are of a low quality for foraging and commuting bats. Furthermore, the building was found to only contain a low number of potential roosting features. These potential roosting features were all inspected by our licenced bat surveyors and were found to have negligible potential to support roosting bats.
As such, the building as a whole was considered to have negligible potential to support roosting bats and so no further survey or mitigation work were required, with regard to bats.
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