The Heritage Lottery funded Bats in Churches Project has confirmed that it will provide funding in 2018 to implement temporary blocking of the bats’ access routes from the south aisle ceiling space into the church and the subsequent surveys in 2018 to confirm there is no impact on the bats.
The 2017 surveys concluded that the bats did not need to go inside the actual church. If the solution is successful, and can proceed without detriment to the bats, then it will most likely become a permanent installation. The work must be done during the last week in April 2018 to avoid disturbing the bats. Scaffolding will be erected inside the church under the south aisle to give access to the ceiling. And if it’s successful there should be minimal bat poo inside the church.
This is a fantastic result, the congregation is delighted and would like to say a big thank you to Sue Willetts who did all the hard work to get us accepted as a pilot church for this project. Watch out for details of summer 2018 bat events where we will have a detailed opportunity again to watch the bats and when we will share the full results of the 2017 surveys which identified in detail how the various species are using the church.