Day 24 – Monday 8th August 2016 – BATS

Our property is in an area that has potential for bats, therefore it was deemed necessary that we should have a bat survey carried out before any work could go ahead on the roof of the property.
We had dawn and dusk observations completed last year. During the first bat activity survey, Springdale was identified as a transitional/ day roost for a low number of common bats.
Therefore a Method Statement was drawn up which instructed us on how we must go about our new extension.
In hindsight we now understand what we did wrong.
This is what happened.
Some work to the roof has already been carried out without supervision of a bat licensed ecologist contrary to the licence conditions.
Everything is on hold.  No further work can be carried out to the existing roof without supervision.
We have breached planning conditions and have been reported to Natural Resources Wales.
We must await their decision.

If anyone out there is in the same position, a word of warning – do not go ahead and touch the roof without a bat licensed ecologist being employed on site prior to works commencing and during any removal of roof tiles.
Read the Method Statement carefully. Our report was 29 pages long. The Method Statement was on page 17. So it is advisable to read it all.
The local authority have now also been informed of our breach of planning conditions.
We now also have a Shwegler 1 FE Bat Box on the garage as recommended and we will need to install another three on the front of the house on completion of the building.