Abbey Have Our Own Batman to Stop Flagship Robin’ Us

Abbey resident and Committee member Neil Spillane has come up with a genius plan to hopefully mitigate against Flagship plans to demolish houses - bat boxes!

Neil explained: “Having bats on the estate places extra considerations on builders and developers. There are bats on the Abbey Estate and providing roosts for them is a helpful ecological thing to do. All bats and their roosts are protected by law its, illegal to either harm bats or damage or destroy a roost.

“Doing any of these is an absolute offence meaning it is against the law if the person knew about the roosts beforehand or not. Remember a roost can be home to just one bat.

“Be aware if you have a box on your property it can only be opened by a licensed bat worker. Once installed you cannot remove a bat box and you will have to inform any potential buyer that a bat box is on your property.

“It is important to take account of bats from the earliest stages of planning work and Flagship would have to get advice from Statutory Nature Conservation Orders before engaging in any building work if bats are present.

“Before large buildings work can began developers need an ecologist to advise on the work. Very large works like demolition or regeneration will need a licence from SNCOs if the roosts are to be altered or removed.

“Bat Boxes aren’t a fail safe way to stop properties from being knocked down but Flagship will need this licence to deal with bat boxes.

 “In addition, bat boxes are good for the environment and help with insect control, so having a bat box on your property is a good thing to do generally. If there are bats living on the estate Flagship have to create access for them. They have to provide roofing membranes, claddings, soffits, facias and solar panels that are bat friendly. They may have to create bat highways.”

 For more information visit bats.org.uk as they give full information on where to site a bat box.