Bat house application submitted to council

BATS will get accommodation as an additional planning application is submitted as part of the re-development of a council house site at Tiers Cross.

Pembrokeshire County Council plans to knock down and rebuild homes at Tudor Place, with residents rehoused while the work is carried out.

An application has been submitted by the local authority this month to build a bat house at the site following an ecological survey of the area.

Licensed ecologists TerrAqua Ecological Services Ltd were commissioned by Pembrokeshire County Council to survey the ten properties at Tudor Place before the application to redevelop the site was made.

Two of the houses had evidence of being used as bat roosts by small numbers of common and soprano pipistrelle bats in addition to brown long-eared.

Other bat species, all of which are protected, were recorded within a 1.5mile radius of the site the report adds.

Their survey did not find evidence of hibernation – bats, hedgehogs, and dormice being the only British mammals to hibernate – or maternity used of the roof spaces by bats so the construction of a bat house would leave the houses free to be demolished over the winter.

It is proposed that a new purpose-built bat house is constructed within the
current boundary of the site allowing access from the adjoining agricultural field with fencing to protect from development work.

The mitigation plan will “provide both retained and enhanced roosting
opportunities for bats in the long term.”

Comments can be made on the application until November 7, when a decision will be taken by officers or it will be referred to the committee.