By Chris Story

Last updated at 10:45, Saturday, 18 April 2009

Work has begun to rehouse roosts of bats that have delayed the opening of Carlisle’s new Richard Rose Central Academy.

Pipistrelle bats

The discovery of the species at the former St Aidan’s School put work on transforming the city centre site back by four months.

It had been hoped that pupils currently at the former North Cumbria Technology College in Harraby would move to their new home in September 2010.

But the roosts of pipistrelle bats at Lismore Place means they will not be able to move in until January 2011.

Contractors Kier Construction will soon be moving in to start demolition work.

That means the bats need to be rehomed by an English Nature-licensed ecologist.

Once the ecologist has confirmed the roost locations and that bats are active after their hibernation, excluders will be fitted to all known roosts.

A Kier spokeswoman said: “Once out, the bats will be unable to return to that particular roost so they will then find and use their new roosts. The pipistrelles should continue to roost in their new homes until Kier has completed the main Academy building, at which time several more roosts being included in the new building will become available to the bats.”

A survey of the bats’ activity first took place in 2007 to establish where roosts were and how the bats were using the site.

Further surveys followed throughout last year to identify maternity roosts and to determine if any other roosts had been used prior to hibernation.

The spokeswoman added: “The bats were left to hibernate while research was compiled into a detailed survey of bat activities which could be used to plan a rehoming strategy.”

Factors including lighting, tree maintenance and proximity of the roosts to existing bat-commuting routes were considered in the search for alternative sites.

Kier is providing more new roosts on site than will be lost during demolition.

Academy chiefs revealed the delay caused by the bats in December.

All species of bat are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Under its terms it is illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take any bat, to disturb roosting bats or to damage, destroy or obstruct access to any place used by bats for roosting.

CStory@cngroup.co.uk

First published at 08:56, Saturday, 18 April 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk