Letter: Driving us batty

While one has every sympathy with Alison Murray being driven out of her Peterculter home by bats (your report, 9 August), the real culprit in the story is Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). SNH recently took over from local councils as the bat licensing authority in Scotland, yet despite having had a year to prepare for this responsibility, it has yet to formulate its policy on what mitigation measures will be permitted on developments around bat roosts.

Any policy will then have to be legally ratified and SNH still has no idea when it will be in a position to start doing its job.

My proposed purchase of a house in Aberdeenshire recently fell through because SNH was unable to advise on what developments would be allowed around a roost of Daubenton's bats.

In an e-mail, one member of SNH's species licensing team exhibited no understanding of the habitat of Daubenton's bats, had clearly not bothered to read the website of the Bat Conservation Trust which I was advised to consult, and finally advised: "If you are so concerned about this perhaps you should look for a less problematical property." What a scandalous response.

After this experience the best advice I can give is: protect your bats but feel free to put to fire and sword the SNH species licensing team (and its roost) until it comes out of hibernation and starts doing its job.

Don McAlistair

Blackford Glen Road

Edinburgh