UES have recently completed a suite of bat surveys at a residential property in Prestbury. Our client had plans to demolish the residential property on site and construct two new houses in its place.
UES initially carried out a bat scoping survey of the property in November 2018. Bat scoping surveys can be conducted all year round and they involve assessing the roosting potential of the site for bats, and searching for evidence of roosting bats, such as feeding remains or droppings. In this case, brown long-eared (Plecotus auritus) bat droppings were found scattered throughout the loft, which confirms bats have been using the property for roosting purposes.
This triggers the need to carry out presence / absence surveys, which can only be undertaken from May to September inclusive. This is known as the bat survey season. However, we were able to carry out the initial surveys on the 1st May the following year in order to ascertain the numbers and species of bats using the building as quickly as possible. Over the course of two presence / absence surveys, a single soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) was observed roosting under raised roof tiles of the property. No brown long-eared bats were found roosting within the building, suggesting this species only used the property historically.
As bats were confirmed to be roosting in the property, a licence is needed to destroy the roost of this otherwise protected species. Normally, developers would have to apply for a European Protected Species Mitigation Licence (EPSML) from Natural England, which can often be a lengthy process. However, UES are able to provide a unique service as our Managing Director, Toby Hart, is a registered consultant with Natural England.
Projects that only affect a low number of roosts from common UK bat species, such as this one, can be licensed under the Bat Mitigation Class Licence (BMCL). This allows UES to streamline the licensing process so the works can be completed as soon as possible. UES successfully applied for a BMCL after planning permission was granted, and the works were completed by August 2019. Had the developer apply for a EPSML, this would have likely took much longer to achieve.
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