Builders fined for harming bats

5:17pm Friday 1st February 2008

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A PROPERTY developer has been ordered to pay £5,500 after admitting destroying a local bat roost.

In front of St Albans magistrates today, the P J Livesey Group pleaded guilty to illegally damaging the roost in a building it was converting in Essendon in the autumn of 2006.

The company, which is based in Yorkshire, was given planning permission to convert Bedwell Park, a large Victorian building, into flats, on condition it commissioned a survey for bats.

An ecologist found the roof was being used as a roost by three species - pipistrelles, ferotines and brown long-eared bats - obliging the firm to apply for a licence from English Nature.

The licence would have been granted on condition that the firm provided alternative roost sites and avoided the most sensitive time of year.

But instead the firm called for a second survey, which concluded the bats had all left the site.

When they saw the company was pressing ahead with the work, worried local conservationists got involved, and, discovering there were indeed bats being disturbed, alerted police.

Magistrates fined the company £3,500, and ordered it to pay £2,000 costs.

Alison Rasey of the Bat Conservation Trust said: "The sorts of buildings that this company renovates are highly likely to harbour bat roosts either within the buildings or within the grounds.

"It is a great shame that the company seemed to ignore its legal responsibilities to protected species, making prosecution the only option.

"Hopefully others in the industry will learn from this, and take proper account of bats and the legal processes before developing their sites.

"Bats are very vulnerable animals and they need all sectors of the land use and development professions to follow the correct procedures for ensuring their survival."

She said that the original roost site had been destroyed, but it was possible the bats might have found an alternative home nearby.