Yes is the answer! Even if you don’t think you have bats, if development site even has the smallest chance of bats being present, it is worth commissioning a survey to ensure no bats are present. If there was a ‘reasonable likelihood’ of bats, it would be much better to have a survey carried out than leaving it to chance.
The good news is that a Bat Scoping Survey can be carried out all year around, so, no matter where you are in the process, one of our Ecologist can undertake a bat survey to find out for sure if there are any bats or if there is the potential for bats to be present on the site.
This gives you the advantage or time to either:
Amend plans, so you do not impact the bats; and
Put in place a mitigation scheme to ensure that the development meets the requirements of third parties and regulations.