All bats are listed as ‘European protected species of animals’. It is an offence for any person to:

• Deliberately capture, injure or kill a bat.
• Intentionally or recklessly disturb bats, where that disturbance may affect the ability of those bats to survive, breed, rear or nurture their young, or is likely to significantly impact on the local distribution or abundance of any bat species, wether in a roost or not.
• Demage or destroy a place of shelter of a bat.
• Posses a bat, whole or in part, alive or dead.
• Obstruct access to a roost.

Local authorities are obliged as part of their local planning policies to ensure the conservation of biodiversity, including bats and other species protected under the European Habitats Directive.

As a result, they need to assess every planning application against this criteria and will make a judgement on your application. However, you will need to undertake a survey if there is a reasonable likelihood of bats being present.