WWith the increasing costs for working and building materials entitled to inflation, homeowners who deal with renovation projects must expand their budgets before planting a spade into the ground.
For some, however, the bills for the smallest jobs such as repairs to the roof or the new glazing of windows must be carried out, however, paralyzing financial surprises, since laws protect the 18 types of bats in Great Britain.
The problem came last November in the spotlight with the expenditure of 100 million pounds for a bat tunnel of HS2, but it is not just over-budgeted rail schemes that are affected by the preservation of the flying mammals.
Voluntary groups, homeowners and landowners pay thousands of pounds for bats alone, before they even act on costly measures to protect animals as part of a planning system that the new Labor government wants to reform.
And while conservationists insist that the habitat of bats does not have to damage to protect an important player in the country's ecosystem, others claim that the process has become bureaucratic and expensive.
Examples of work are the team behind the cultural heritage Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in the Lake District, which built a 4.6 meter high bat bat sleeping tower after up to 47 bats were found in an old station building for losing weight.
In Bath, in Somerset, a landowner paid almost 250,000 pounds in a windowless bat house before destroying a farmhouse, while in an existing industrial area in Wrexham, North Wales, a developer had to install four bat boxes before building three new units.
Bats are legally protected, and so every project in which the animal costs a survey for around 500 GBP from a qualified ecologist as part of a visiting ecologist and travels. This can include minor work that are as small as window replacement and re -wiring.
If a reference to bats is determined, a second activity survey may be necessary to identify the species and numbers. This assessment often requires that the bats are active, and therefore only takes place outside of the winter months and at regular dawn and twilight or weeks.
If it is assessed that bats would be influenced by the development, the ecologist creates a new report in which the appropriate reduction with a license that is often needed from natural England to determine work.
“The reduction can range from slight measures, such as placing bat boxes on external walls or near trees to more complex solutions, e.g.
“In cases where a large bat loft is required, the reduction measures can be more extensive and create dedicated resting places with suitable conditions.”
£ 10,000 'bat hotel' '
Sir Nicholas Coleridge, a former media manager who was appointed Provost of Eton College last year, told The independent He was forced to pay £ 10 for a “bat hotel” as a bat loft-in a sub-medieval barn, which he had converted in his house in Worcestershire, Wolverton Hall 12 years ago.
Bat boxes and bats were also required in the loft “Breathable membrane” to plan the approval according to ultrasound recognition equipment, he said, a potential flight of a bat in the barn over a period of two weeks.
But more than a decade later, Sir Nicholas did not claim a bat in the loft, and they preferred to stay in the roof of his permissible house.
The chairman of the historical royal palaces said: “I think [renovate a property] You have to go to the small list of bat experts and then change to lick your lips. “
He also accused the deterioration of the “beautiful” landing animals and outbuildings in the industry and asked how endangered some types of bats were in regions of the country.
“As a country, we pay an enormous punishment in our inheritance and in the beauty of the landscape to provide people with a very, very simple and well -paid lifestyle,” said Sir Nicholas.
The 11 bat species in Great Britain, which are monitored, have not suffered a long-term decline in numbers according to the bat conservation Trust. In his recently published national BAT surveillance program, however, the short-term trends indicated fewer population increases and some emerging declines in regions.
The trust said that bats had contributed to regulating healthy ecosystems and protecting protection against threats such as agriculture and development. A spokesman said that complaints about delays and costs associated with bats have introduced “misleading rhetoric” in the media and politicians.
In Somerset, a site manager said to a family -run building contractor that a customer had to build a “bat” of £ 250,000 with a measurement of 15 x 25 meters before working to demolish a farmhouse for a new property in Bath.
The manager Nick, who did not want to give his last name The independent: “An ecologist appears, has a look over the farmhouse and as soon as they found bat droppings, it was more work that we had to do.
“The customer had to build the bat roost, a bat, as they call it, but I don't think there were so many bats that used the flashing thing. The restrictions on the building were ridiculous. [ecologists] seem to have a lot of strength and control over what is going on. “
David Patchett, owner of Azzurri Chartered Architects in Wirral, said that a customer converted into four town houses in Thame in Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire in Thame, but was delayed by the need for a bat survey in May.
The report arrived last month, which shows no evidence of bats on the website. However, Mr. Patchett said that his “annoyed” customer now has to wait until next year to build.
He said The independent: “When they came to the survey, four boys appeared on site, one on every corner of the building. They stayed for about three hours and saw no bats. The costs for the report are £ 1,200, the costs for senseless delay in the project is tens of thousands.”
Bats play an important role in ecosystems
Sally Hayns, Managing Director of the Chartered Institute for Membership for Membership for Ecology and Environmental Management, emphasized the criticism and stated that it was the task of ecologists to help people stay within the law and to harm bats.
Ms. Hayns also emphasized the importance of bats and explained that every animal eats up to 4,000 insects per night, which would otherwise spread human, herbal and animal diseases.
She told The independent: “As more and more of its natural habitat has been destroyed, bats have increasingly rely on artificial structures such as attic rooms and barns as places of life.
“As a result, since they are legally protected, we have to find ways to ensure that the improvement and renovation work are ashamed at home if they damage bats when they are present or if they are damaged bats, reduce these damage.”
She said that the cost of a bat survey was £ 500, which included checking maps and old records as well as travel and years of experience, were not inappropriate. And she said some ecologists received abuse or threats for their service.
She said: “We are aware of the effects of these projects on house improvement, but ecologists really do their best to help home owners and to do it as painless as possible.
“Of course there will be some villain ecologists who try to make more money than they should, but these are relatively little, and the entire profession should not be made a scapegoat.”
Labor checks the process with a proposed planning and infrastructure law, which includes environmental development plans that contain it behind a project that contains legally protected locations or wild animals to pay in a natural restoration fund.
But there was strong opposition to the bill.
Richard Benwell, managing director of the wildlife and land connection coalition, said: “It would be more exposed to the non-sustainable development.”
A government spokesman said: “This government has inherited a failed system that blocks economic growth and does not do anything for the recovery of nature.
“For this reason, we will optimize processes for environmental regulation, including simplifying the instructions for the protection of bats and their habitats, without blocking important new houses and infrastructures.
“The new Nature Restoration Fund will also secure permanent improvements for nature and remedy the failed status quo by removing time -consuming and costly processes to support the construction of 1.5 million new houses.”