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Bat pole required


Canski

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I walked round a site with an ecologist. He didn't climb any trees,  but looked on the ground, and listened at night.

I had chosen him after rejecting many others over the years. 

Not only ecology, but archaeology, transport, whatever. Some have the qualifications but may be in the wrong job, or don't have common sense or an understanding of cost.

Phone about for another.

Sack your ecologist, and save the fee,  or put up the pole and say to the planners that you don't have bats but this is just in case. 

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3 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

Some have the qualifications but may be in the wrong job

I have a BSc in Environmental Science, would that qualify me to be in the wrong job, or to say that 'to the best of my knowledge' there is no XYZ.

My knowledge of wild life is very limited.

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1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

I have a BSc in Environmental Science, would that qualify me to be in the wrong job, or to say that 'to the best of my knowledge' there is no XYZ.

My knowledge of wild life is very limited.

That would do me,( and certainly good enough for a planner,  as long as common sense is applied. I have seen loads of reports that basically say....continue to employ me to monitor this.

I have overturned a few (environmental and archaeology) by pointing this out to planners and proposing alternative solutions. 

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4 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

 

 

The key thing about ecology is that ecology-focused  Conditions relevant to your site must be evidence based

they say they saw bats entering the roof space in the 30 mins I wasn’t there. 

4 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

You say that the ecologist has found no evidence of bats. There's no evidence of tigers either, (I bet). And you're not being asked to erect a tiger-proof fence (I hope)

I like tigers. I’d have them around my place all day long. There was a survey done on the house in 2017 which stated that there were 4 different species of bat there including a maternity roost of brown long eared batsards. I feel that most of their findings are based on this previous report despite the total environment changing due to the 502 new homes built around the site. 

4 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

is understandable (because you are keeping your eye on the main prize - Planning Permission).

 

May I suggest you

  • make sure you know when he is on site - make him give you a schedule
  • shadow his every step when he is there
  • make him give you the evidence
  • and in the absence of evidence , relax and 
  • have a plan ready for when there is evidence

Just double checking: have a look at planning permissions given round your area - say 5k or so. Is there any evidence of bat activity in those Planning Applications

? And if there is, what mitigation was conditioned?

 

If there is no other locally recorded bat activity ...... and you have had a really good look in your roof space.

 

It is very easy to be a really sloppy ecologist. First hand evidence available on request.

I don’t let him out of my sight when he’s there. I record all of his dribble while he is there. The only record of bat activity is in from my house on the previous survey. It was all fields and orchards before they built the new houses. 

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they say they saw bats entering the roof space in the 30 mins I wasn’t there. 

 

That is difficult to argue with. Though I did dispute with our SE that he had tested ground strength using a 2m long steel rod he had somehow found and lost on the 2 mins nobody was with him. Grrr. But then I had other evidence.

Looks to me that you should put up the post and boxes. He should, in his report have told you what heights and box types. If not, ask.

If you don't have a tree, do neighbours? The bats won't mind.

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Originally the ecologist suggested that due to the lack of trees the bat boxes could be put on the gable ends of my 2 neighbours garages. I again suggested this and this was the reply


‘In this case we would need a letter from the owners of the garages to Natural England stating that the bat boxes were allowed on their garage and they would be permanently there, so if they sold their property etc. it would need to be written into the deeds of the sale etc. We feel that this is overly complicating a simple situation.

 

We would therefore recommend putting the four bat boxes on a wooden pole in the northern corner of the site. Shall we just proceed on this basis?’

 

ah well pole it is then I guess. 

 

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Keep pushing for alternative solutions, as you might be made to keep the mitigating solutions forever.

 

Clarify as with the garage, whether the pole can go afterwards or not (I suspect it might need to stay, so make it something you can live with). As I understand it we are not meant to touch/change anything recorded on the Bat Licence. If I had known this could be discussed with the ecologist before being written in stone on the Bat licence I would have paid more attention.  They will suggest bat tiles/boxes etc. The boxes have to be specific (expensive) ones, not just any old thing from the garden centre. 

 

As an aside, it's rather surprising that you have bats when you don't have any nearby trees....

 

 

 

 

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With my planning fight (which I won 🤣) we had bats in the area and after the bungalow burnt down the ecologist suggested bat boxes in the trees till the build was finished. I didn’t want bat boxes in the house and suggested that as I was building the workshop/garage first I incorporate bat boxes in the ridge of that and the ecologist said they were sufficient for the whole site, however the planners still said they wanted them in the house as well. Well I argued in my appeal that the ecologist was more qualified than the planner to decide such matters, so I won on that point as well 👍

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  • 1 month later...
2 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

"Ere, Canski, mate.... whassat pole for ?"        ....    "Ya wot ?"......

 

One Oh FFS moment down, several more to go.

I’m bracing myself. Then I thought that it would be a good place to place a time lapse camera. I feel a new post coming. ( pardon the pun)

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