The nights are long, and all the bats are hopefully safely in hibernation now. And for those holding bat licences, it’s the last couple of days to find all those batty records and get your annual return in.
In this newsletter we have:
- Two messages from our parent bodies about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
- Our last Bat Detector Workshops of the year was a great success
- Request for help with a students Bat Care Dissertation
- We are still looking for a new Secretary
- Our next Bat Group events
- This month’s BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes the latest (no) news on Natural England’s Bat Regulation Reform Roadmap
Messages about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
The group has received two messages from our parent bodies about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill:
Georgia at Somerset Wildlife Trust:
One last push for people and nature. Your voice DID make a difference.
Dear Supporter,
The last time I was in touch about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, we were pleased that Amendment 130 had been introduced by the House of Lords. Whilst the Bill itself is a backwards step, this amendment was to give extra safeguards to stop developments destroying wildlife and wild places where you live.
Disappointingly, the majority of MPs voted against keeping this important amendment in the Bill, as well as voting to not keep a vital amendment to protect chalk streams.
But you should know that our MPs in Somerset voted to keep it in. Your voices made a difference.
Which is why we, and the Wildlife Trusts are not giving up. Our MPs can still help put nature alongside a healthy economy – and here’s how…
The Bill now returns to the Commons for consideration of the Lords message on Monday 8 December. – and a chance for us to achieve a win for nature.
During this time, your Somerset MPs can be influencing others AND can also be writing to Ministers in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to urge them to rethink their damaging proposals. To stop them letting developers pay cash to trash our natural world.
That’s why I’m emailing you today. The more pressure we can keep up, the more likely it is we can win vital changes for wildlife, even at this late stage. Nature needs us to keep fighting, together. The Government cannot let nature down in this final stage. We suspect there will be a final vote soon so there’s no time to waste – please send an email to your MP NOW (or better still – email all 7!)
Read more about the Bill, the amendments and the key issues here >
Thank you for your continued support!
BCT policy and advocacy team:
Unfortunately, the government chose to ignore scientific evidence and instructed its MPs to reject Amendment 40. This critical amendment would have helped to safeguard bats and other wildlife from the worst impacts of this badly thought-out Bill.
As it stands this proposed new law will undermine wildlife protection so we will continue campaigning to stop the “Pay-to-Destroy” Bill. We will continue to keep you updated and you can also keep an eye on this page for more information.
We will be fundraising for our policy and advocacy work, and in December there will be an opportunity to double your donations. To receive updates about this urgent fundraising campaign and to be notified when it goes live please sign up here.
Once again thank you for your continued support
Another day of Bat Detector Building
On Sat 15th of November we ran our last bat detector making workshop of the year at the Somerset Earth Science Centre. Another very busy (and long) day saw all 12 people leave with their new detectors. A great success.
- Seven Mini Pipistrelles
- Three π•pistrelle
- and two PippyG
All the built detectors were fully working, however one had an intermittent Microphone contact and was replaced with one pre-built by the workshop leader.
We will be running more workshops next year, please see this page on our website for all the details.
Bat Care Dissertation
The group received the following message from Hannah Wilson:
My name is Hannah and I am a final year university student currently completing my dissertation. I have a huge love for bats and am a bat carer myself, because of this I have decided to do my dissertation on bat carers and the stress they experience.
As a part of this I am sending out a survey to be completed by bat carers, including trainees. Please if you could share this among your bat group members, I would appreciate it greatly.
My hope is to identify common causes of stress in bat carers and how I can lessen these.
I apologise if you have already received an email from me or seen this on the bulletin. I am eager to get as many responses as possible. Thank you
We are still looking for a new Secretary
Great news, we hopefully have found a new Treasurer to take over at Aprils AGM!
However we are still looking for someone for the role of Secretary.
You can find out all about this important role here. This is your chance to help your group.
If you think you could help, please do email us – somersetbatgroup@gmail.com
The next Bat group Events
Come along and get involved! The next events coming up are:
- Jan’26 – National Bat Monitoring Hibernation counts.
- Spring 2026 – Bat Detector Workshops x4
- 18April26 – Bat Group Annual meeting, Othery
Details of how to get involved for all events are on the website: https://somersetbat.group/events/
Bat Group Bulletin
This month’s BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes the latest (no) news on Natural England’s Bat Regulation Reform Roadmap.
Back copies of all past Bat Group Bulletins are on the link below: