Bat survey

[Ktelobb]

Hi, just wondered if anyone knows much about bat surveys. We have bought a house that has come with planning permission to knock down and rebuild. We are in the process of changing the plans and therefore applying for new planning permission. Does anyone know if we have to have all the bat and ecology surveys done again? They were completed with the existing planning app last year in August. 
thanks 

[Russell griffiths]

I wouldn’t think so

surely the survey was for demolition purposes, not what you intend to build, I would keep quite and get your new plans in

 

remember you dont want any new bats so keep the place spotless and fill in any holes, alternatively get it knocked down quick if you are happy you have planning in place. 

[Ktelobb]

Unfortunately we can’t knock down until we have permission for our new plans because of the CIL charge. Numerous people have told us that the bat survey applies only to the first application and not for subsequent. I just wondered if anyone had had any different experiences ? 

[Bozza]

If away to apply for PP imminently I would just submit existing one with it assuming none of your new plans conflict with the existing bat survey results.    I would imagine they could only justify asking for for a brand new one if something significant had changed or it was way out of date.  Bear in mind that if they require a full new habitation survey they are done seasonally (May-Aug rings a bell).    

 

The obvious answer is to ask planning dept but that risks them just saying we need a new one.  Easy answer for them.

 

If if it was a full habitation survey, which are expensive, I would deffo take the risk of just applying with the old survey.  Nothing lost that way.  If they do need a full new habitation survey in May do your research and make the house bat unfriendly prior to May.  If you do need to do a new one go to same company as before because their report work will involve less work so you should get it cheaper.

 

Bats have more residency rights than you BTW.

 

 

[nod]

We bought our plot and had a building to demolish 

We completely changed the original plans 

The vendor had the bat  and newt surveys done But not the echo survey Which we had to sort out ourselves 

We simply used the bat survey that had already been done Without giving it a second thought 

If they insisted on a fresh survey Surely the Bat company could update the original for a small admin charge  

[Ktelobb]

Thanks for your response. Our new plans have just gone in for pre app. I am hoping that we can just use the existing bat survey otherwise it will delay our build until a new one can be completed next may. We know we have bats as we have seen them but also the bat survey that has been completed showed we had bats too. So we know that we’ll have to get a mitigation license it’s just whether or not the LPA will  insist on a bat survey being completed again given that the last one applies to the existing planning app. Happy to get a licence just don’t want to have to wait for another survey! ?

[Ktelobb]

4 minutes ago, nod said:

We bought our plot and had a building to demolish 

We completely changed the original plans 

The vendor had the bat  and newt surveys done But not the echo survey Which we had to sort out ourselves 

We simply used the bat survey that had already been done Without giving it a second thought 

If they insisted on a fresh survey Surely the Bat company could update the original for a small admin charge  

Thanks for this, this was the answer I was hoping for! ?

[nod]

3 minutes ago, Ktelobb said:

Thanks for this, this was the answer I was hoping for! ?

Good luck

Get the most stressful part of your build out of the way 

The rest will be a doddle in comparison 

[colin7777]

Do you have bats ? if you do I would do as much cleaning up of the ground as possible prior to the survey

[joe90]

Oh yes, vacuum everywhere and bung up every little crevice, and I mean little, they get into the smallest of gaps.

[Ktelobb]

37 minutes ago, nod said:

We bought our plot and had a building to demolish 

We completely changed the original plans 

The vendor had the bat  and newt surveys done But not the echo survey Which we had to sort out ourselves 

We simply used the bat survey that had already been done Without giving it a second thought 

If they insisted on a fresh survey Surely the Bat company could update the original for a small admin charge  

Thanks for this, this was the answer I was hoping for! ?

 

we have bats already, they were already there when we moved in. Bat survey also found them. We are semi rural in an old 60s house. We have tidied up the garden, And blitzed the house since we moved in but I think they’re still here. We know we’ll have to get a license before we demolish, I just didn’t want to have to get another bat survey done and wait til

next May to get it ! 

[Patrick]

2 hours ago, Ktelobb said:

Thanks for your response. Our new plans have just gone in for pre app.... Happy to get a licence just don’t want to have to wait for another survey! ?

I did a pre app, utter waste of time and money.

many others on here with similar experience. If you want to get planning app done and through, just skip the pre app and go for full plans. Get a phone number for your Planning Officer and phone him/her up. With a bit of luck, they tell you which corners to tweak to get it through.

regarding bats: you have them already, so not much of a problem. Bat survey mainly is for people who want to proof they don't have any and avoid the trouble when demolishing. I was I this situation.  It if you're fine with having them, just ignore this part when it come to handing in full pp. If they ask, hand them the original Bat survey that was done when original pp was applied for. Should be zero problem. They will just accept it. Would be different if it said "no bats" - then they might argue or want a new survey.

[Ktelobb]

Thanks, good advice but we have already put the pre app in, waiting on a lengthy response by the sounds of it as our LPA is short staffed! Our LPA is renowned for being difficult and slow in responding so I’m not holding out much hope of it going in our favour. We shall hang on for pre app feedback and then take it from there. Won’t mention the bats til they ask for it! 

[Ed Davies]

AFAICS, there are some pros and some cons to pre-apps:

 

Pros: If you're doing something unusual it's a cheap way to see if it's worth the time and expense of a full application. Their feedback can be helpful in getting together a full application which goes through more easily.

 

Cons: It takes time and, maybe, money. The planners can let their own prejudices influence the response without review yet if you ignore what they say it might be harder to appeal a later refusal on the full application.

 

Maybe it depends, in part, on the relative cost of preapps and full applications. In Highland preapps are free. I was going for something a bit unusual and had no idea if the planners would like it or hate it (they liked it), their response was fairly rapid (about 7 or 8 weeks IIRC) and the few tweaks suggested in the response were useful so I was overall very happy that I put one in.

[Ktelobb]

Sounds like everyone has different experiences with pre app. It’s a Shame there isn’t any consistency across the LPA’s. Ours is renowned for slow response and being very difficult to get anything passed.