The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has approved the first stage and initial funding for the 5 year “Bats in Churches” partnership project, bringing together wildlife and heritage conservation and church organisations to save bats and protect churches.
The partnership includes Natural England, Church of England [Alliance member], Bat Conservation Trust, Historic England and the Churches Conservation Trust [Alliance member].
The £3.8 million ground-breaking project will:
- trial and perfect new techniques to enable bats and church congregations to live together;
- build up professional expertise and volunteer skill to share the best solutions with hundreds more churches; and
- bring together church communities and bat enthusiasts to create a shared understanding and appreciation of England’s historic places of worship and our rare flying mammals.
Whilst small bat populations can occupy parts of a church without disturbance, in other cases bats can pose severe financial and social problems for congregations. At a time when churches are increasingly becoming community hubs with a diversity of events and uses, bat droppings can restrict activities, damage historic artefacts, cause hygiene issues and put strain on the volunteers who look after these beautiful buildings.