Bat legislation help req’d please

[Hedgehoggy]

To cut a long story short, I’ve just rec’d the following email from a friend (talk about leaving it till the eleventh hour!):

I have just found out today that there is a meeting tomorrow in the Community Centre on the parade of shops at 7pm about the planned proposal to build on the land where the xxxxxx pub is and on the woodland to the back of it. I am not sure if this backs onto you, but I thought that I would let you know. Apparently there are protected bats in the woods too!

The land proposed for residential development has been unoccupied for several years and is approx 500 metre radius including the woodlands and open land behind the pub (it’s quite an extensive piece of land). The woodlands don’t back onto my garden per se, there is one road with houses either side separating it from me, but I do know that’s the direction the bats come and go from which fly around the trees in my garden.

I’d like to go to this meeting armed with current bat legislation. Can you confirm that my LA are legally required to carry out a competent bat survey by an independent experienced licensed bat consultant, or can they insist on doing their own in-house survey? If they find evidence of bat activity, what happens next?

If my friend hadn't sent me this info, I'd have been none the wiser about any such proposals. Aren't LAs obliged to notify local residents of such large scale developments, or is it a case of local residents scanning weekly planning applications submitted?!!!!

All info will be gratefully received - especially so if received before tomorrow's meeting!

[fairplay]

I would assume such a large plot of land has been included on the 'local plan' drawn up by the LA several years ago and put out for public consultation.
So it could well be earmarked for future housing needs by the LA.
If not, there is nothing to stop anybody applying for planning permission to develop the site, and it is only then that the LA will inform householders whose land will be affected - either by mail or public announcement in local press.

The developers will have to pay independent experts/consultants to prepare an environmental impact statement listing all the trees and wildlife encountered or thought to be present, including bats which may not be present when the survey is done (but a survey is usually timed to coincide with any bats likely to be present)
West Yorks Wildlife Trust will be aware of any plans so do inform them that you have been told of bats being present, which I am sure they would expect to be there anyway.
Any planning application of this size should be accompanied by an EIS and you can read it at your LA offices, local post office, or Parish Clerks address.

If you go to the meeting and start shouting "There are protected bats there. (all bats are protected) This says they must not be disturbed" then you will simply be stating what the developers, planners and Wildlife Trust already know.
So just go to the meeting first, listen carefully, and find out what the proposals are and when or if an application is to be made.

Neil.

[Hedgehoggy]

Thanks muchly for your informative reply, Neil, and for pointing me in the right direction. Don’t worry, I had no intention of going to the meeting with guns-a-blazing! I merely wanted to be aware of all the legalities concerning the bats. I wasn’t able to contact the WYWT by phone (ansaphone system), so I emailed them with my concerns. I did manage to speak with a very helpful bat consultant from the West Yorkshire Bat Group this morning, who feels the actual derelict building may be of more interest to the bats than the mature trees in the woodland on this land. *Sigh* such a pity the mature woodland itself isn't protected with TPOs, some of the trees are in excess of 50 metres high.

The bat consultant assured me that if any bat presence is detected, the developer will legally be required to provide an alternative bat habitat on the land, either by incorporating bat loft spaces into the new housing development, or by way of erecting a bat platform on the land (I think she said ‘platform’! ).

Anyways, I can now attend tonight’s meeting a lot more knowledgeable and a tad reassured, than I was last night