Council may have to pay £4.3m to protect bats

Barbastelle bats have been discovered in the area

A council may be forced to spend £4.3m on bat protection measures as part of a road project, its leader has said.

Lincolnshire County Council claimed it had been told it must build a bat bridge and a bat tunnel after a rare species of the animal was found near the site of the North Hykeham Relief Road, near Lincoln.

Sean Matthews, the Reform UK leader of the authority, previously described the measures as "nonsense" and said taxpayers "will not pay".

However, Matthews has now told the BBC: "The reality is I have to be pragmatic, and I see a scenario where it is cheaper for us to pay for these bat bridges than delay it and delay it."

The project has come under scrutiny over additional costs needed to protect the barbastelle bats.

Matthews said delaying the project could cost up to £500,000 a month, adding: "Very quickly it would escalate to being more expensive to fight this than to accept it.

"But I will make it perfectly clear it was not by the choice of this council – it will be forced upon us because of an agreement made by the previous administration."

The council previously said it had been told by Natural England that it must take the measures.

However, Natural England has disputed the claim.

"Natural England was not consulted over bat mitigation for the North Hykeham Relief Road and as such, we did not require, 'demand' or design the bat 'culvert' and 'bridge' mitigation," a spokesperson said.

"The proposals have been designed by the developers based on their own ecological surveys and legal obligations."

Sean Matthews said bat tunnels were "a nonsense"

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the Reform-led council was in discussions to try to avoid paying for the measures.

"I genuinely think there is a way out of this, but I will not risk delaying this project," Matthews said.

Similar measures were put in place as part of the HS2 project, at a cost of £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.

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

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