Lincolnshire County Council may face a £4.3 million bill for the protection of rare barbastelle bats on the North Hykeham Relief Road project, says council leader Sean Matthews. After discovering the bats near the proposed road site, the Council was allegedly directed to build a bat bridge and tunnel. Matthews, who previously criticised these measures, now concedes that the fiscal consequences of project delays might surpass the cost of the bat safeguards possibly amounting to an additional £500,000 per month. The Council attributes these measures to an agreement made by the earlier administration, a statement that Natural England disputes, asserting that it did not advise or demand the bat mitigations.
This article was adapted from original reporting by www.bbc.com.
