Bats and Nesting Birds When Converting a Garage or Building a Garden Gym in England: What Natural England Guidance Says

Planning a home gym usually starts with the building: converting a garage, boarding out a loft, or putting up a garden room. Those jobs can disturb wildlife that has legal protection, and the law applies whether the work is done by a builder or by the householder. Natural England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs publish GOV.UK guidance on bats and on wild birds. This guide summarises those two pages, which say they apply to England, and notes that GOV.UK links separate guidance for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the bat page. Both pages were last updated on 29 March 2015. It is general information, not legal advice.

Bats: protection and what counts as an offence

GOV.UK says all bat species, their breeding sites and their resting places are fully protected by law as European protected species. It lists things that break the law, including deliberately capturing, injuring or killing bats, damaging or destroying a breeding or resting place, obstructing access to a place where bats rest or shelter, and intentionally or recklessly disturbing a bat while it is in a structure or place of shelter. The penalty on conviction is up to 6 months in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.

The guidance names activities that can affect bats. Several map directly onto home gym projects:

• renovating, converting or demolishing a building, which includes a garage conversion;
• repairing or replacing a roof, or repointing brickwork;
• insulating or converting a loft;
• installing lighting in a roost, or outside if it lights up the roost entrance; and
• cutting down or removing branches from a mature tree, and removing hedgerows, watercourses or woodland that bats use for commuting or foraging.

The guide to putting a home gym in a loft and the guide to building a garage home gym cover the building side of those projects.

What to do if bats are suspected

GOV.UK says anyone who thinks there is a bat roost in or near their house can contact the National Bat Helpline, run by the Bat Conservation Trust for Natural England, for free advice on small-scale works, pest control or concerns about the bats. If needed, it can arrange for a volunteer bat roost visitor to inspect the property. The helpline cannot advise on building works that need planning permission.

In many cases, the guidance says, harm to bats or their access can be avoided, and an expert is needed to carry out a bat survey. The survey shows what type of bats there are, how many and how they use the building or area, so the work can be planned to avoid harming them. GOV.UK names two directories for finding an ecologist: the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and Environmental Data Services. If harm cannot be avoided, a mitigation licence can be applied for from Natural England.

Wild birds: nests, eggs and the breeding season

GOV.UK’s wild birds page says all wild bird species, their eggs and nests are protected by law and that harm must always be avoided or non-harmful measures used before considering harmful action. It says harm can usually be avoided by timing the work to avoid the breeding season and by using methods that deter but do not harm birds.

The page lists offences that include intentionally taking, damaging or destroying a wild bird’s nest while it is being used or built, and intentionally taking or destroying an egg. Some birds, known as Schedule 1 birds, such as barn owls, have extra protection: it is also an offence, intentionally or by not taking enough care, to disturb them while nesting or building a nest, near a nest containing young, or to disturb their dependent young. The maximum on conviction is an unlimited fine and up to 6 months in prison for each offence.

Activities that can affect birds, particularly in the breeding season, include trimming or cutting trees, bushes and hedges, renovating or converting a building, and creating disturbance such as noise, lighting and vibration. That matters for a garden gym because clearing a corner of the garden, cutting a hedge or working on a shed or garage roof can all occur where birds are nesting. The guide to trees and a garden gym covers the separate rules on tree preservation and conservation areas.

Construction and the legal exemptions

The wild birds page says there are no licensing purposes to permit development or construction, but there are ways to continue development or construction when birds are present. These rely on the legal exemptions, and GOV.UK says the terms of an exemption must be fully complied with so that the law is not broken. It adds that in exceptional cases the law allows exemptions for legal activities, such as a development with planning permission, where avoiding harm is not possible. The guide to permitted development for a garden gym covers planning permission itself, which is a different question from wildlife law.

A practical order of work

• Before ordering materials: look at the garage, loft or outbuilding for signs of roosts or nests, and for a garage or loft conversion consider a survey by an ecologist if bats might be present, as GOV.UK says an expert is needed for a survey.
• Time vegetation and roof work to avoid the birds’ breeding season, which GOV.UK identifies as the usual way to avoid harm.
• Think about lighting. A new security or work light outside a garage can light the entrance to a roost. The guide to lighting a home gym covers the indoor side.

The bottom line

In England, GOV.UK says bats, their roosts, wild birds and their active nests are legally protected, with penalties of up to 6 months in prison and an unlimited fine. Converting a garage, working on a roof, insulating a loft, cutting a hedge and adding outdoor lighting can all affect wildlife, so timing the work outside the breeding season and getting a survey where bats may be present are the ways GOV.UK identifies to avoid harm. GOV.UK says there is no licence to permit construction where birds are present, only exemptions that must be followed fully.

Sources

• Natural England and Defra, GOV.UK, “Bats: protection and licences”
• Natural England and Defra, GOV.UK, “Wild birds: protection and licences”