Bats have been strictly protected since 1981. It's a ferocious piece of legislation, with fines of up to £5,000 per bat for an offence against them, but it's done a great deal to protect many of our 17 native breeds. I enjoy seeing bats; flittering around the garden, they add an ethereal charm to a summer s evening. The shame is the damage that they do. Too many buildings where they roost and the communities that use them are being damaged by bats. There are, for instance, churches with a serious bat issues; the problem is not the bats themselves, but the excrement that cascades from their roosts.
Many churches have to cover all the pews with polythene to prevent the mess spoiling all the church furniture. It's also a health hazard. I'm all for protecting endangered species, but a sense of proportion has got to be had. No church would want to risk rehousing the very rare Bechstein's bat, Britain's rarest mammal, but why ruin the church and the community for the much commoner pipistrelle, which isn't threatened? Why should all breeds of bats be treated the same way? By all means protect them, but let s apply some common sense, too.
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The wave of downsizing about to hit the property market in the UKThe Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget — and specifically the 'Mansion Tax' — has fired a starting pistol for downsizers, and the waves will wash across the entire property market. Annabel Dixon spoke to property experts across the country to gauge how it will play out.
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Meet the British perfumers squeezing landscapes into scentsThe nuances of modern perfumery now allow a single drop to evoke an entire landscape. Amie Elizabeth White explores the native houses hitting the right notes
