Leather Lane will close (for 14 months) on 1st September, to allow work to commence on the new road, and more particularly to allow excavation of the South Heath cutting to continue – which requires the removal of a section of the existing lane. This will change the activities of the conservation group, and the bats. The new bridge is to be built ‘offline’ – in a different position from the existing lane – so that it could be completed before the removal of the lane, to avoid an extended closure. However, the previous contractor (EKFB) wasted two years denying the existence of the bats and designing a standard bridge without appropriate mitigation; Consequently, the cutting is now at the edge of the lane, and the new bridge has not been started.

Our activities –

Batwalks on the lane itself are suspended for a year or so, in the absence of any lane to walk on. We will investigate walks along Potter Row, or adjoining footpaths – initial observations indicate significant bat activity in this area. We have started wildlife surveys in the copse to the north of the lane, and will continue with these, to monitor the effects of construction.

… and the Bats ?

Align initially intended to construct a bat crossing at the Havensfields accommodation bridge, about 1/4 mile to the south of the Lane. We pointed out that our bats might not be able find this (not having access to Google Earth), and a better solution was devised – a new flightline, crossing the cutting at the boundary of the ALIGN and EKFB sections, which for some unknown reason is not to be excavated for a while. This might be effective, with additional netting as used previously beside the lane, and work has already started.

We will monitor activity with bat meters positioned beside the flightline at the corner of the copse, and have made some initial baseline observations while the flightline beside the lane still exists. We can also monitor activity at the lower (west) end of the lane, for comparison with previous years.

Summary

While activities on the lane are now restricted, we will continue to monitor the bats as best we can, and advise Align of any changes. We have also been promised a meeting with HS2 regarding the future of the lane after construction, which is the first step in creating a conservation area. See future news items for progress reports.