There was something odd about this photograph from the WC website. The picture was displayed by Wiltshire
(County) Council at the start of the Inquiry. We were then able to see that WC's bats were Fruit Bats from the Far East.
But, expert consultants researching the impact of an eastern Westbury bypass, which was to pass through 4km of countryside
near to Salisbury Plain, actually found one of our richest areas of our native bats in England. Wellhead Valley,
which is adjacent to the famous Westbury White Horse, holds a very rare 13 of Britain's 17 bat species, including all species
listed for special protection.
Bats fly on established
routes. Wellhead Valley is a Special Landscape Area and an
undisturbed established habitat. Bats will not adapt to new routes.
The eastern bypass was planned to run the length of the Wellhead Valley.
Bats could not be trained to fly through new underpasses. How unrealistic. Nor can bats be trained, amidst
the disturbance of road construction, to follow artificial flight paths over a series of gantries; a strange concept of nature.
The bats could have been driven out by a new main road through the valley.
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