Bats and their roosts are legally protected in Northern Ireland. If your proposal affects a building, a roof void or mature trees, the council will usually want to know whether bats are present before it determines the application.
All bat species in Northern Ireland are protected under the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 as amended, and as European protected species under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 as amended. It is an offence to damage or destroy a roost, whether or not bats are present at the time.
That is why councils ask the question early. Finding a roost after works have started is a far more difficult and expensive problem than surveying for one beforehand.
Preliminary roost assessment. A daytime inspection of the building or trees, looking for droppings, staining, feeding remains and access points, and scoring the structure for its potential to support roosting bats. This can be carried out at any time of year.
Dusk emergence surveys. Where the assessment finds anything above negligible potential, dusk emergence surveys are needed to establish whether bats are actually using the structure. Even low suitability normally merits a precautionary survey — the cost of one visit is small against the consequences of destroying a roost that was never looked for. These are season-limited: the reliable window is broadly May to August, with April and September carrying caveats, and no useful surveys possible in winter.
The single most common reason an application stalls on ecology is a bat survey commissioned in autumn that cannot be carried out until the following May. If there is any chance your scheme touches a building with roost potential, it is worth getting the preliminary assessment done early in the year, so any emergence surveys can be slotted into the same season.
If you are unsure whether a building needs surveying at all, send a few photographs of the structure and the roofline and you will get a straight answer on whether it is likely to be an issue.
Finding bats usually does not stop a scheme. It changes how the scheme is built. That normally means a mitigation strategy — timing of works, retained or replacement roost provision, method statements — and, where a roost will be affected, a wildlife licence from NIEA before works begin.
Preliminary roost assessments can be carried out all year round. Dusk emergence surveys are limited to the active season, broadly May to August, with the shoulder months of April and September subject to caveats depending on conditions and the species involved.
Very often, yes. Older stone or brick outbuildings with slate roofs, gaps in the stonework or open roof voids are classic bat roost features, and conversions typically involve exactly the works that would affect a roost. A preliminary roost assessment is the way to establish whether further survey is needed.
It depends on the roost potential of the structure. Low suitability normally warrants a single precautionary visit, moderate suitability two and high suitability three, spread across the survey season. Only buildings assessed as negligible are usually scoped out without any emergence survey.
The works can usually still go ahead, but they need to be planned around the bats and will normally require a mitigation strategy and a wildlife licence from NIEA. Early survey work gives you the most options and the least delay.
Areas covered: Omagh · Cookstown · Enniskillen · Derry / Londonderry · Strabane · Dungannon
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