Bid to weaken protections for bats in churches

A BID to limit legal protections for bats in some of England’s most historic churches has come under fire in the Lords.

Tory Lord Cormack said big colonies of bats were putting thousands of churches at risk of damage from their droppings and urine.

He denied his Bat Habitats Regulation Bill was “anti-bats” and said something had to be done to protect churches and tackle the hygiene risk. But the move was opposed by both the Government and the Opposition, with peers warning a balance had to be struck to ensure bats could coexist with church congregations.

Lord Cormack said bats were amazing creatures and it was right they should be adequately protected. “But it is right too that churches should be protected from incursions that threaten their condition and very purpose.”

Insisting it was a national problem, he cited the example of a church in Lincolnshire which, he said, was not allowed to repair a door because it might block an access route for 900 bats roosting there.

Some churches, Lord Cormack said, were in a “constant battle with bat droppings and urine”, with the stench and hygiene risk affecting weddings and funerals as well as other services.

“We need a sense of urgency,” he said. “Over this weekend tens of thousands of bats will defecate and urinate in over 6,000 churches.”

The Bill would disapply bat protection laws in churches unless there was no “significant adverse impact” and prevent new building without a local bat survey.

Liberal Democrat Lord Redesdale said churches were one of the last sanctuaries for bats after other habitats had been destroyed.

The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, said there were places where the bat population outnumbered the church congregation.

“It isn’t at all funny for congregations in churches where bats do sometimes rule the roost,” he said.

The Bill was given an unopposed second reading.