{"id":716978,"date":"2026-07-29T09:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/716978\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:06:10","slug":"construction-firm-fined-after-150-bats-died-due-to-building-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/716978\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction firm fined after 150 bats died due to building work"},"content":{"rendered":"

A construction company has been fined \u00a317,000 after destroying a colony of 150 bats during building work.<\/p>\n

The soprano pipistrelle bats \u2013 which are protected under European law \u2013 were found to have died of dehydration and starvation after the hole used to enter and exit their roost was blocked off.<\/p>\n

Dumfries Sheriff Court heard how the tenant of the sheltered housing bungalow, where the work was being carried out, suffered bat bites after more than 150 flew into his living quarters and bedroom from the house\u2019s roof, where they had been trapped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Building (Glasgow) were fined \u00a317,000 after pleading guilty to breaching animal conservation laws between June and July 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court heard how the construction firm had been contracted by the property\u2019s landlord, Wheatley Homes South, to fit external cladding to the house in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, and install solar panels.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, CBG was responsible for reviewing each property to determine whether bats were present.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After failing to carry out a review of the property, solar panels and external wall insulation were installed between June 23 and July 5, 2023.<\/p>\n

The tenant and his family complained to Wheatley Housing South that\u00a0a huge number\u00a0of dead and dying bats were within the property on July 14.<\/p>\n

The man was later taken to hospital, where he was admitted and treated for bat bites. He was subsequently rehoused.<\/p>\n

An ecologist estimated that the roost contained around 150 adult bats and a similar number of pups, amounting to a total of 300 animals.<\/p>\n

Around half were found dead in and around the property, with others dying or trying to get out of the property, most of whom were pups.<\/p>\n

The bats appeared to be coming from a hole around the boiler in a bedroom where pipework ran up to the attic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They could see new facias and work on the roof area, preventing bats from entering and exiting the roof as they had been able\u00a0to\u00a0prior to the work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The injured bats were uplifted and removed for treatment.<\/p>\n

Iain Batho, who leads on animal welfare for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said:\u00a0 \u201cIt is the responsibility of those\u00a0involved in\u00a0construction work to ensure\u00a0that due diligence is carried out to prevent the unlawful disturbance of protected wildlife or their habitats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Building (Glasgow)\u00a0failed in their duty to\u00a0carry out that necessary due diligence, which\u00a0negatively\u00a0impacted\u00a0on a sizeable\u00a0maternity roost and\u00a0resulted in the death of around 150\u00a0bats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis\u00a0impaired the ability of these bats to survive\u00a0and rear their young during the maternity season and\u00a0will\u00a0impact\u00a0significantly\u00a0on the Soprano Pipistrelle\u00a0bat population in that area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCOPFS takes\u00a0wildlife crime\u00a0seriously, and action will be taken against individuals or companies where there is sufficient evidence of a crime and where it is in\u00a0the\u00a0public\u00a0interest to do so.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A construction company has been fined \u00a317,000 after destroying a colony of 150 bats during building work. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-716978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}