Bats are protected under UK and European legislation. Bat roosts are protected regardless of whether bats are occupying the roost at the time. If a roost or evidence of a roost is found, then a European Protected Species Mitigation (EPSM) licence may be required to allow a development to proceed. As part of the application a mitigation strategy will be necessary to provide effective solutions to preserve the existing roost or provide suitable alternative roost sites to compensate for the loss of a roost site.

The approved survey period for bats generally runs from April to September with June to mid-August being the key period for identifying important roost sites. Preliminary Roost Assessments (PRA) to determine the suitability of a building for roosting bats can be carried out at any time of year.

Riverdale Ecology have bat surveyors with extensive experience designing, coordinating and undertaking bat surveys for projects ranging from small barn conversions to large infrastructure projects. Our ecologists are fully licensed by Natural England and able to undertake building inspections, visit and survey roosts and can undertake activity surveys utilising both static detectors and manual transect techniques.

We are able to undertake large scale and long term surveys using static detectors and can analyse vast data files of bat calls to determine the species and distribution of bats over large sites.