First Cross Road, Twickenham Backlands Bat Report
23rd December 2021
Habitats & Heritage (H&H) is the charity that cares for the natural and historic environment and climate in south and west London. We want to see nature flourish whilst protecting and enhancing south and west London’s historic environment. H&H acts as the secretariat of Richmond Biodiversity Partnership, which writes and oversees the Richmond Biodiversity Action Plan, a supplementary planning document that seeks to conserve biodiversity in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
H&H has been receiving species data supplied by immediate neighbours of the ‘backlands’ (the area behind no. 24 Hampton Road) for the last two years. This data has been provided to GreenSpace Information for Greater London (GIGL) in line with Richmond Council’s service level agreement with the data being cited in various other responses to this planning application.
H&H’s Anabat Detector, a static passive detector with omni-directional microphone, was deployed between the 14th and 23rd August 2021 on the boundary fence of no. 22 Hampton Road, and the ‘backlands’ facing into the ‘backlands’. Some 1772 bat activity records were recorded over this time by the detector with all records being externally verified by a bat expert to ensure their accuracy. The data shows an abundance of Common Pipistrelle activity (1480) from early evening (earliest 8:20pm) through to dawn, the former indicating there is likely to be a nearby maternity roost. Other species recorded were Soprano Pipistrelle (283), Daubenton’s (3), Leister’s Bat (3), Noctule (3).
Due to the above externally verified significant bat records and likely nearby maternity roost, we object to the planning application for tree works in the ‘backlands’. Furthermore, we will object to any future planning application/s for this site, which we believe holds significant environmental value for bats and should be protected as such.