New home for rare bats

16/03/2006

Essex & Suffolk Water is hoping that its purpose-built roost at Ormesby treatment works will attract hundreds of rare bats this spring.

Daubentons bats were using the basement of a filtration block at the treatment works as a maternity roost area.

The filtration block is 70 years old and in need of repair so a bat roost was built nearby by Essex & Suffolk Water and is designed to mimic the basement conditions of the filtration block.

The repairs to the filtration block are essential for the water supply in the Great Yarmouth area.

Last year, following a partial structural collapse of the filtration block and expert advice from English Nature, Essex & Suffolk Water obtained an exclusion licence from Defra to remove the bats so that emergency repairs could be carried out without causing harm to the colony.

A handful of the bats have now used the purpose built roost to hibernate in but it is hoped that more will use it in the coming months.

It was decided by Essex & Suffolk Water and English Nature that the bats should be excluded for an additional year to allow further structural repairs at the filtration block to be carried out.  Defra has agreed with this decision.

Miranda Davis, environment team leader at Essex & Suffolk Water said: “We are hopeful that more bats will use the roost this spring. The roost has been designed to mimic cellar conditions with turf on part of the roof to make it humid and heaters to keep it at the right temperature.

“Ormesby water treatment works is the sole supply of drinking water to over 40,000 people in the Great Yarmouth area and the filter plant is used in the treatment of over two thirds of the water that passes through the works. The repairs to the filtration plant are essential for the water supply in the Great Yarmouth area.”

The filtration block is due to be reopened to the bats in 2007 once it has been declared structually safe.

For further information please contact Claire Bishop on 01245 212 010.