Fury over plan for £4.3m bat bridge and tunnel

Barbastelle bats have been discovered in Lincolnshire

A council leader says he is "furious" to learn that taxpayers are being asked to pay millions of pounds to protect bats when a new road near Lincoln is built.

Lincolnshire County Council has been told that it must build a bat bridge and a bat tunnel as part of the North Hykeham Relief Road project. It comes after a rare species of the animal was found in the area.

Reform UK council leader Sean Matthews said it was "nonsense" and taxpayers "will not pay" for the measures.

Natural England, which has called for the scheme to include bat protection measures, has been approached for comment.

The road would link the A46 with Lincoln's eastern bypass, completing the ring road around the city.

But rare barbastelle bats, which are protected by law, have been seen in the area, which is the furthest north they have been found in England and Wales, the council's head of highways infrastructure, Sam Edwards, told the overview and scrutiny management board.

A bat bridge costing £3m to build is now needed at South Hykeham and a bat tunnel costing £1.3m is required at Waddington.

"It is very clear from communication with Natural England [that], without mitigation, it will object to the planning application," Mr Edwards said.

He added that precedent suggested that Natural England's argument would "hold favour, and it's almost certain that the planning authority will have no choice but to recommend a refusal".

Sean Matthews says bat tunnels are "a nonsense"

But Matthews said he would "probably" ask highways managers to come up with alternative plans, and he would ask Reform UK Boston and Skegness MP Richard Tice to take up the issue in Parliament.

"The council will not be paying £4.3m for bat tunnels," he said.

"The bats aren't nesting there, and there are roads all around the route and the bats could easily get killed on those, but they don't because they fly over."

He added that "someone else can pay" if the tunnel and bridge were absolutely necessary.

Similar measures were put in place as part of the HS2 project, costing £100m.

A Norfolk road project was put on hold after Natural England raised concerns about the protection of barbastelle bats, although Norfolk County Council is now asking for the scheme to go ahead.

But there have been claims that the success of bat-protection measures is limited.

Lincolnshire County Council's Conservative opposition leader – and former highways portfolio holder – Richard Davies said "the system is geared towards the bat and against the people".

He labelled Natural England "an unelected quango" and said "rules are being forced upon people with no scrutiny".

"There's anecdotal evidence that only 30 to 40% of bats use the tunnels," he said.

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