Bats use a variety of roosts throughtout the year, carefully selecting those which suit their needs according to the season, species and the sex, age and body weight of individual bat.

Generally, bats occupy the roofs of buildings during summer, arriving between April and June. These are often nursery roosts where the females gather to give birth to their single baby in June or July. When the babies have been weaned and are independant, the bats start to disperse and most usually leave the nursery roost by the autumn to go to other sites where they may hibernate during the cold winter weather. However, some bats will be present in roofs and other parts of a building, such as cavity walls, throughout the year.

BATS AND THE LAW

In 1981 Parliament gave bats full protection because of dramatic declines in populations, with some species becoming locally extinct. The causes of decline, which include the loss of suitable roosts, are generally the result of human activites.

Under section 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) it is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take a bat, and, with regard to sites used by bats, it is an offence to intentionally damage, destroy or obstruct access to any place used by bats, even when bats are apparently absent, or to disturb bats while rooting.

BATS AND RE-ROOFING

It is, of course, necessary to maintain buildings in good order. However, as bats can be found in all kinds of buildings, usually in roofs and under external woodwork, it is recommended that roof voids are routinely checked for bats and their droppings whenever re-roofing, roof repairs (including replacemant of missing tiles or slates, ridge tiles, flashings, barge boards and fascia boards), or remedial timber treatment is proposed.

If bats or bat droppings are found during an inspection, *English Nature must be notified before any work that may affect the bats or their roost starts. (This also includes work such as plumbing or electrical re-wiring to be carried out in the roof void in addition to re-roofing, repairs or timber treatment as these ativites can cause considerable disturbance to bats.)

Once notified of evidence of bats English Nature usually arrange for a site visit, with consent of the property owner, to investigate the bats' use of the building in detail. These visits are normally carried out by trained and licensed volunteers from the local Bat Group who report their findings to English Nature.

Written advice on how work can be carried out, including recommendations on the timing of work, provision of accesses for bats, suitable fluids for remedial timber treatment etc is given to the property owner and to architects or contractors who may also be involved.

*See a link to the English Nature website on the Links page.

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