From: Becky Coffin [Becky.Coffin@bristol.gov.uk] Sent: 30 September 2008 11:29 To: jp@mooses.co.uk Subject: Re: Bats and Demolition Thank you for you email. It is always nice to hear about the wealth of wildlife within our urban area, and reassuring that there are people like yourself who are able to appreciate and value it. I have not been involved in the Sefton Park expansion proposals, but as a planning application would be needed before any development work could begin, it is likely that I would have been consulted at that stage. The people carrying out the scheme will be aware that they will need to take nature conservation issues into consideration, in order to meet the requirements of the planning process. Also under paragraph 40 of the NERC (Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act) 2006, evey public authority, "must in exercising its functions, have regard, so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of those functions, to the purpose of conserving biodiversity." To ensure that these nature conservation issues are considered at as early a stage as possible, I have also contacted Michael Branaghan, to bring to his attention the likely presence of bats using the site. Bats are a protected species and it is illegal to damage a roost (without a licence). At the planning application stage, they will be required to demonstrate that a survey for protected species has been carried out, and on the basis of the survey findings, include proposals for mitigation where necessary. If bats are found to be roosting in the building proposed for demolition, then in order to get a licence to be able to destroy that roost, they would have to provide appropriate mitigation which would normally include a replacement roost. The plans shown on the website you referred to, do not appear to result in the loss of many of the trees within the grounds (apart from the one or two between the existing building and the temporary structure). If the bats are making particular use of these trees, then that will hopefully become apparent through the bat survey, and will therefore then be addressed within the mitigation. There may also be the potential to improve the biodiversity value of the site, as the final proposals may be able to include new native planting, and I will look for such opportunities when the planning application comes in. I hope this information is helpful. If you need any further information, please feel free to contact me. Kind regards, Becky Becky Coffin Nature Conservation Officer Culture and Leisure Services Bristol Parks Colston 33 Colston Avenue BS1 4UA Tel: (0117) 3525656 Fax: (0117) 9223744 >>> jpc@mooses.co.uk 26/09/2008 09:09 >>> Becky, Ashley House, the Victorian building opposite my house, is under threat of demolition to make way for the expansion of Sefton Park School as part of the Primary Review (see our website here http://www.AshleyGrangeResidentsOrganisation.co.uk ) My wife and I often see bats above the trees in the grounds. Another resident independently mentioned bats in the grounds as part of a late statement to Cabinet yesterday. The plans for the expansion show those particular trees to be removed. The Avon Bat Group recommend I contact the Council and Jan Walters put me on to you as Nature Conservation Officer responsible for the area. What should we do? How can we make sure a Bat Survey takes place? By the way, the proposed plans are awful for the environment here. We see foxes at least weekly - when they are young they wake us up at night with their playing and yowling in the grounds opposite. Once, we had three foxes of different ages together in adjacent gardens. We are on several hedgehog runs. In our garden there is a secretive colony of slow-worms which we see a few times a year. Many frogs, though we lost them all to the "red-leg" virus this year. A large owl sits on the same branch every night in the tree directly opposite as part of his rounds - I have to clean his enormous "deposits" off my van all the time. A while ago a neighbour frightened a tiny muntjac deer in her garden (the deer live in St Werburghs). And the trees in the grounds house a small family of urban crows who terrorise our cats when they are protecting their young. My wife and I made a submission to Cabinet yesterday which said "We love our home as the view from our house is of green grass and trees in the grounds of Ashley House, with lots of light falling on our property, wild-life... We cannot believe that the Council - which trumpets Bristol as a green city and encourages the teaching of environmental responsibility in its schools - is allowing this wanton destruction of our immediate environment" Please do all you can to help! Many thanks, -- JP Coetzee / jpc@mooses.co.uk 16 St Bartholomews Rd BS7 9BJ _________________________________________________________________ _____ 'Do it online' with our growing range of online services - http://www.bristol.gov.uk/services Sign-up for our email bulletin giving news, have-your-say and event information at: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/newsdirect View webcasts of Council meetings at http://www.bristol.gov.uk/webcast