Bats have lost out in a legal battle over a proposed roadway.
In Morge (FC) v Hampshire County Council [2011] UKSC 2, the Supreme Court considered the extent of the UK’s obligation under the Habitats Directive to prohibit “deliberate disturbance” of certain species of bats.
The council granted planning permission for a three-mile stretch of roadway that would be used to provide a rapid bus service. Environmental objectors contended that the proposed route would result in a loss of bat foraging habitat and would sever a bat flight path.
The Supreme Court ruled on the level of “disturbance” required to engage the prohibition, and the obligation on local authorities to pay regard to the Directive.
Dismissing the appeal 4–1, the court held the Directive protected species not habitats, and protected “species” and not “specimens of these species”. An assessment was required as to the nature and extent of the impact on the species. Activity during the period of breeding, rearing, hibernation and migration were more likely to have a sufficient negative impact on the species to constitute “disturbance”.
Nevertheless, the court decided that planning permission should ordinarily be granted except where this would be likely to offend the Directive.
