Council may have to pay £4.3m for North Hykeham bat bridge

A council may be forced to spend £4.3m on bat protection measures as part of a road project, its leader has said.

Lincolnshire County Council claimed it had been told it must build a bat bridge and a bat tunnel after a rare species of the animal was found near the site of the North Hykeham Relief Road, near Lincoln.

Sean Matthews, the Reform UK leader of the authority, previously described the measures as “nonsense” and said taxpayers “will not pay”.

However, Matthews has now told the BBC: “The reality is I have to be pragmatic, and I see a scenario where it is cheaper for us to pay for these bat bridges than delay it and delay it.”

The project has come under scrutiny over additional costs needed to protect the barbastelle bats.

Matthews said delaying the project could cost up to £500,000 a month, adding: “Very quickly it would escalate to being more expensive to fight this than to accept it.

“But I will make it perfectly clear it was not by the choice of this council – it will be forced upon us because of an agreement made by the previous administration.”

The council previously said it had been told by Natural England that it must take the measures.

However, Natural England has disputed the claim.

“Natural England was consulted twice as the proposal evolved, neither time did we give advice on bats or raise an objection to the scheme over bat mitigation for the North Hykeham Relief Road,” a spokesperson said.

“As such, we did not require, demand or design the bat culvert and bridge mitigation. The proposals have been designed by the developers based on their own ecological surveys and legal obligations,” they added.