Churches cry foul as bats in the belfry create a stink
Wardens say conservation laws prevent them from taking steps to block the creatures, and their mess
IT WOULD try the patience of a saint. While congregations may sing about all creatures great and small, when bat excrement is falling from the ceiling, it is difficult to turn the other cheek.
In fact, bats in the belfry are becoming such a problem for parishioners that churches are now calling for a change in conservation laws.
It’s illegal to stop a bat reaching its roost – leaving many churches unable to patch up holes in their walls and doors, which bats use for access.
Almost 100 churches are thought to have applied for the Bats and Churches Partnership, which will monitor the bats to see whether church managers could be allowed to take action to protect their historic buildings. It is funded by £3.8million of National Lottery cash.
At one church, All Saints in Braunston, Rutland, volunteer wardens spend hours cleaning pews and floors of bat urine and excrement each time the church is used, and have been forced to protect valuable furniture and art with sheeting.
Three years ago, staff said they were struggling to cope after the vicar had to shake droppings out of her hair while celebrating Holy Communion.
Gail Rudge, 74, a lay minister at All Saints, said: “I think the whole point is conservation laws were needed, but now they need to be reviewed and made a little less stringent.
“The crucial thing is maintaining the balance between our need to have a clean church without any damage and the bats’ need to have somewhere to roost. We want to get [the gap in the wall] blocked up but the laws are so strict, there’s nothing we can do.”
She said it takes around an hour and a half for one or two volunteers to clean the church of bat droppings and urine on the morning of an event, such as a wedding. On one occasion, the church warden collected 200g of bat droppings. They have also had to cover up two 600-year-old wall murals because they were in danger of being damaged by the excrement.
The church is one of three hoping for a reprieve after they were chosen for a pilot scheme under the Bats and Churches Partnership. Another church chosen for the scheme, Holy Trinity in Tattershall, Lincolnshire, says it has more than 700 bats roosting in the building.
Staff have been unable to restore the 500-year-old doors to the Grade I listed church because it would mean closing a gap used by the bats for access.
David Mullinger, the church’s deputy warden, said the European law that makes bats a protected species is a particular issue in England and Wales because of the way churches are designed.
He said: “The majority of European churches have much larger roof space, which means that bats can enter that area without going into the church. In English churches, that isn’t usually the case – there isn’t a lot of space so they come into the main church.”
At the third church, All Saints Church in Swanton Morley, Norfolk, Gerry Palmer, lay chair of the parochial church council, said the pilot gives them hope. “What we’re hoping for is a change in the law so that it’s relaxed. We want to keep our church open so it can be used for the purpose it’s been intended for,” he said.
A Natural England spokesman said the agency was trying to find a “broader and more commonsense approach to the legislation”, which approached conservation “more strategically and less animal-by-animal”.