Where a development would damage or destroy a roost, or disturb bats, the work needs a licence from the country's nature conservation body. The licence is granted against a mitigation scheme designed by a licensed ecologist, and it is issued after planning permission rather than before, which is a sequencing point that catches many applicants out.
What the licence permits
The specific acts described in the application: excluding bats from a roost under supervision, destroying a roost, and providing replacement roosting in the completed building. It is permission to carry out a designed scheme, not a general exemption.
The three tests
A licence is granted only where the work serves a purpose the regulations recognise, where there is no satisfactory alternative, and where the favourable conservation status of the species is maintained. The mitigation scheme is the evidence for the third.
Why the sequence matters
The application relies on the approved scheme and the planning permission, so the licence follows the permission. Building the licence period into the programme, on top of the survey season, is what keeps a project on its dates.
Why removal is the wrong word
There is no lawful service that removes bats on request. What exists is licensed exclusion, at the right time of year, under a scheme with replacement roosting. Anyone offering to remove bats for a price is offering to commit an offence.
Questions people ask about bat licence
What is a bat mitigation licence?
A licence permitting works that would otherwise breach bat protection, granted against a mitigation scheme prepared by a licensed ecologist.
How long does a licence take?
Weeks rather than days once the application is complete, and the application cannot be made until the surveys, the scheme and usually the planning permission are in place.
What does bat removal cost?
There is no such purchase. What is priced is the survey work, the mitigation design, the licence application and the supervised works, and it is quoted by an ecologist for the scheme rather than per bat.