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Willem Buttinger
Published:
11:16 AM January 7, 2021
The barbastelle bat s natural habitat could be disrupted if the new Western Link is built
- Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Norfolk Climate Change Conference organiser Willem Buttinger is alarmed at a proposed road to the west of Norwich
An invitation arrived in my inbox to a webinar on December 8, called Nature Discovery of the Year, on the route of the Wensum Link. What was all the fuss about? Being a fairly new resident to Norfolk, the Wensum Valley had no emotional hook on me and bats had been getting a bad press of late.
On joining the webinar I was totally amazed that I was one of nearly 170 people attending. We heard from Dr Lotty Packman on how the Wensum Link route there is a super colony of the very rare barbastelle bats. Dr Packman explained that even if bat bridges/underpasses worked (which they rarely do), deaths from crossing the road is only a small part of the problem. The wide area of destruction of h