HS2 have revealed that the project will drop a whopping £100 million to protect bats in Buckinghamshire. Yep, you read that right: as the high-speed rail line works on its next steps, it’ll spend 100 big ones on a structure to conserve the flying mammals.
HS2 says it basically been made to build the structure to comply with environmental protection laws. But the plans have caused a big argument between constructors, the government, and the local council. So, why has everyone gone batty?
Why are bats so special, anyway?
There are thirteen species of bat living in Sheephouse Woods in Buckinghamshire, where HS2 will cut through on its way up to Birmingham from London. These include Bechstein’s bat, a really rare species that roosts in old woodpecker holes.
Bats are legally protected in the UK, meaning it can be a crime to ‘intentionally or recklessly disturb’ them, or obstruct access to a bat’s shelter. The government’s environmental body Natural England has to issue a licence to allow any work that might harm them.
Natural England’s COO Oliver Harmar explains that ‘HS2 Ltd is required by legislation to avoid harm to the environment [...] whether by avoiding species and sites protected for nature or by investing in mitigation to limit harm where the route passes through sensitive sites.’
Natural England says lots of people have got in touch concerned about the rail line’s impact on wildlife. ‘Many concerns quite understandably relate to our rarest wildlife and habitats, such as ancient woodland and bats,’ chairman Tony Juniper said.
What’s the £100m being spent on?
Sir Jon Thompson, the chair of HS2 Ltd, told a railways industry conference about the plans. ‘We call it a shed,’ he said. ‘This shed, you’re not going to believe this, cost more than £100m to protect the bats in this wood.’ He claimed there’s ‘no evidence’ that the bats would even be bothered by the trains.
In response, the government’s environmental body Natural England said it isn’t forcing HS2 to build the structure. Instead, it says it’s the body’s job to ‘comment on whether the proposed mitigations will work’. Natural England improved the design of the ‘shed’, which acts like a roof over the trains to allow bats to cross the high-speed rail line without being disturbed.
This isn’t your average garden shed though, stuffed with cobwebs and rusting bikes. The bat protection structure will run for over 1km and cover all 4 tracks of the railroad, protecting wildlife from the 18 trains an hour hurtling in each direction. The structure will stop bats trying to cross in front of speedy trains, or foraging along the edge of the tracks.
More HS2 complications
Our furry friends aren’t the only obstacle keeping the rail-building project off track. HS2 is also in a standoff with Buckinghamshire Council. The council is worried about the threat to ancient woodlands, saying the construction was ‘unnecessarily damaging’ and ‘another kick in the teeth for local people and the environment’.
The council’s deputy cabinet member for HS2, Peter Martin, said: ‘Whilst the council wishes to protect species such as Bechstein’s bats, one of the country’s rarest species, it was never supportive of what seemed like extremely excessive costs for a single structure.’
The bat shed dilemma has spiralled into a bigger debate about how hard it is to build in Britain. Sir Jon says the headache over the bats shows that the UK has a ‘genuine problem’ with completing big infrastructure projects. He said HS2 had to get 8,276 different consents from public bodies to complete just the first phase of the project between London and Birmingham.
The line was originally expected to cost £37.4 billion back in 2013. That was already a hefty sum – but now the price tag has ballooned to as much as £66.6bn. Planning delays, legal costs, and inflations have all driven the cost up. Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said the £100m bat shield was a ‘shocking example’ of the ‘complete lack of efficiency’ of the project. She added that the government wants to reform the system so that public money isn’t wasted.
Check out first-look pictures of the swanky new HS2 trains.
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