Bat surveys for planning

[Peanuts79]

Hi

I would love everyone's input and advice on how to handle the potential bat survey needed to secure planning permission. We have recently moved and in the past couple of months have been lurking and reading with interest various property threads. In fact it's now becoming my turn-to place for advice and thought it was about time I joined the conversations!

With the whole purchase debacle behind us we are now looking at renovating the place we have bought. An architect has come out and given us a break down of fees including for a bat survey. We live in the country surrounded by trees so I feel almost certain we will have bats and the ridiculously expensive survey will show this. Does anyone know if we can bypass this part? Can we just say we're sure we'll have bats and are happy to incorporate bat boxes, anything else an ecologist recommends, into the plans and just pay the fee for the mitigation certificate. This could save us £6000!!

Thanks

DH is an architect and regularly commissions surveys for clients. They are usually of buildings where bats might potentially live. The costs are usually under £1000.

If it is a whole ecological survey of an natural area it will involved a more complex study and report. We are coming up to bat mating season, after their winter sleep. This will be taken into consideration, so it might be a long process. I doubt if you will get planning without the survey.

Thanks, I think it is just the bat survey we need. The architect suggested it would be £1600 for the initial scoping survey and if any evidence of bats the emergence survey can cost up to £5000 with the mitigation certificate and European Protected Species licence on top of this. I don't mind paying a small amount to have ecological surveys done and recommendations on how to provide new habitats, but I thought these prices were crazy.
If there's no way to go straight to the end point there's probably little we can do other than try to find some competitive quotes. I was hoping someone would come on here and give me good news from their experiences......

I agree the survey is likely to see whether bats are actually roosting/living in the building which you want to renovate.
If they are found to be there then it will be necessary for mitigation works to be carried out to ensure that they are not harmed during the process. such measures will need to be put forward as part of the application. Bat boxes may not be sufficient - you need a decent ecologist.
this is the government guidance
Have you spoken to your Council to see what they actually require?