It is not the type of nightlife the developers envisaged. But protected species of bats have become the latest potential hurdle thrown in the way of plans for a bar and club in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens.
The body charged with the care of Scotland's landscape and heritage has contacted council officers in the city, to advise them to conduct a bat survey within the listed park before any planning application is even prepared for consideration. It follows claims by one of Glasgow's leading opposition politicians that he has been informed by senior officials within the authority's parks department that it is aware of bats roosting in the disused railway tunnels under the Botanics.
Save Our Botanics campaigners also insist there are two species of bat roosting in the Kelvindale tunnel, one being the common pipistrelle (pipistrellus pipistrellus) and the other believed to be the species Daubenton. Bat experts who organise visits to the Botanics claim it is "very possible" roosts are in the disused tunnels, while the council insists environmental checks are routine anyway.
If the checks identify a colony of any variety it could present another headache for the company behind the proposals for a bar and nightclub within the gardens, leisure chain the G1 Group.
Bats and their habitat are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, meaning it is an offence to "intentionally or recklessly damage, destroy or obstruct access to any place that a bat uses for shelter or protection" or to "intentionally or recklessly disturb a bat while it is occupying a structure or place that it uses for shelter or protection".
Any scheme to develop the tunnels would then require the Scottish Government to award a licence for the removal of the roosts and, depending on whether the bats are hibernating or if there is no relocation option, could take many months, if not years, to resolve.
Just last week it emerged G1 could face protracted legal wranglings after senior figures within the city council claimed the tunnels do not belong to it to give away, while some of the plot for the project falls under Common Good land, protecting it from development.
David Howat, a solicitor and leading figure within Save Our Botanics, added: "It seems to me that there would be great difficulty in developing the tunnel at the Botanic Gardens without disturbing the roosting bats. This may be another reason why nightclub project hits the buffers, quite apart from the fact that the tunnel may not actually be owned by Glasgow City Council in the first place."
A council spokesman said: "We would carry out an environmental assessment before planning. No-one has shown us any evidence that proves bats are roosting within the tunnels at the Botanics."
Pipistrelles
- Pipistrelles are among the smallest British bats with a wingspan of 20cm and weigh the same as a 5p piece.
- Mating normally takes place in the autumn and the maternity colonies consist almost entirely of female bats.
- The babies are fed on their mother's milk and can fly at three weeks.
- Pipistrelle bats eat up to 2000 midges a night.
- The brown long-eared bat is the second most common species in Britain.
- In Scotland it is an offence to disturb, kill or injure a bat.
- There are 16 species of bat in the UK, 11 of them are rare, vulnerable or endangered.
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