Bat surveys and licensed work at a school in Prudhoe

Bat surveys and licensed work at a school in Prudhoe, Northumberland

E3 Ecology was contacted in October 2020 by a facilities management company regarding a re-roofing project at a school in Prudhoe, Northumberland. The school roof was being replaced due to significant leaks and during the works, a bat was uncovered.

E3 provided advice to the contractors and attended the site to assess the situation, ensuring that no bats were at risk of immediate harm and advising on the necessary procedures to continue with the work from a legal perspective.

In a normal scenario, bat presence / absence surveys would have been completed prior to the roofing works and these results would have informed a European Protected Species Mitigation Licence application to Natural England.

However, no bat surveys had been completed of the school prior to the works, and due to the time of year a full programme of bat presence / absence surveys could not be completed.  In this scenario, it was not possible to delay the repair works until the following year due to the imminent risk of school closure due to the leaks and associated health and safety risks for school children and staff.

E3 completed a combination of a desk study of local bat records, thorough external and internal building inspections, DNA analysis of bat droppings and a presence / absence survey outside of the normal recognised bat activity season (May – September inclusive). This allowed us to establish the likely capacity in which bats were using the building in order to inform a licence application, albeit not to standard survey guidelines which was not possible.

E3 obtained a licence to continue the works from Natural England, relying on the survey information gathered, allowing works to continue in accordance with E3’s licence method statement. The licence was granted swiftly due to the risk to public health and safety and works then recommenced.

The works were completed by December 2020, successfully avoiding significant delays due to survey season timing restrictions or due to lengthy licence application processes.  Bats were safeguarded throughout the development and the school could remain open, which was especially important at the time due to the coronavirus pandemic and guidelines at the time requiring schools to be open.