If there are bats at the site, the Home Office will have to apply for a licence to continue building work from Natural England. A licence will only be granted if it can avoid any disturbance to their habitat or can show that the bats can be safely transferred to an alternative location.
Other protected species, including great crested newts, nightingales, badgers and an otter, have been recorded on and around the former military garrison in Piddington, which the Home Office proposes to convert into a camp.
On Wednesday, the residents of Piddington voted 285 to 26 to “secede from the UK and pursue self-determination” in a symbolic referendum to protest against the asylum camp plans.
“The presence of barbastelles has the specific legal weight required to entirely halt, delay or force the withdrawal of a major planning application,” said an ecological report for the campaign group Wrong Plan, Wrong Site, which started legal proceedings on Wednesday to block the asylum plan.
“If you have access to data showing barbastelle activity like static detector logs with distinct 32kHz, this single piece of evidence is a massive lever.
“It literally forces the developer to halt any planned demolition of the sheds or clearing the boundary vegetation until full multi-season dusk and dawn emergency surveys are performed specifically for this species.”