Lincolnshire council leader refuses £4.3m bat mitigation for relief road, risking project delay

Lincolnshire’s plan to complete the North Hykeham Relief Road has hit a political standoff after the county council leader said he will not approve about £4.3 million for measures intended to protect a rare species of bat found near the proposed route.

Sean Matthews, a Reform UK councillor who became leader of Lincolnshire County Council in May, said the mitigation — which officers identified as a grassed-over bridge, a 4m-by-4m tunnel and a number of smaller crossing features — was "nonsense" and that "the taxpayers of Lincolnshire will not be paying £4.3 million for this." The relief road, designed to finish Lincoln’s ring road and ease chronic congestion in North Hykeham, has an updated estimated cost now put at as much as £218 million.

Council officers and contractor Balfour Beatty drew up the proposals after ecological surveys recorded barbastelle bats in the area, a species protected under UK law and classed as "vulnerable" on the UK Red List. The county’s head of highways infrastructure, Sam Edwards, told a council scrutiny board that the sightings were the furthest north barbastelles have been recorded in England and Wales and that Natural England had warned it would object to a planning application without mitigation in place.

The mitigation package included a twin-hedged, grass-covered bridge intended to carry the bats’ flight lines across the new carriageway and a 4m-by-4m tunnel hoped to give them a safe route under the road. Officers estimated the bridge at about £3 million and the tunnel at £1.3 million, with additional smaller "hop-over" structures also proposed.

Natural England said in a statement that it was consulted twice as the proposals evolved and that it did not require, demand or design the specific bat culvert and bridge mitigation. "The proposals have been designed by the developers based on their own ecological surveys and legal obligations," the agency said.

Matthews, a retired police officer, said the discovery should not delay the project and that he did not accept the costed mitigation was a statutory obligation. "We were elected to stop wasting money and that's what I intend to do," he said. He told local media work on the road, which had been due to start in February, would not be delayed by the dispute.

The county’s Conservative opposition leader, Richard Davies, echoed frustration with environmental rules, calling Natural England "an unelected quango" and saying the system was "geared towards the bat and against the people." He described the process of securing ecological approval as a repetitive and uncertain negotiation with regulators.

Reform UK’s deputy leader and Boston and Skegness MP, Richard Tice, publicised the case at his party conference and on social media, calling the proposals "another batshit bat tunnel" and saying the party would refuse the spending. Reform leaders nationally have pledged to cut what they describe as excessive council expenditure.

Local businesses and residents expressed mixed views. Jack Good, who runs a recycling distribution centre in North Hykeham, said the bypass was "vital" to relieve congestion that he said harms residents and business. Other residents said the additional mitigation costs were "deeply disappointing" and worried about potential cost increases and delays. Some neighbours, however, said bats were a visible part of the area’s environment and that mitigation was appropriate.

Barbastelle bats are among the UK's rarest mammals. Conservation groups estimate there are about 5,000 in the UK after a steep historical decline; the species typically navigates along hedgerows and is vulnerable when a hedgerow meets a road. Legal protections require developers to avoid or reduce harm to such species, and planners can refuse applications where adequate mitigation is not proposed.

Similar disputes have affected other infrastructure projects. Earlier this year, the discovery of bats played a part in the collapse of plans for the Norwich Western Link bypass, and the government’s handling of biodiversity concerns has drawn attention during controversies such as the construction of a HS2 mitigation building in Buckinghamshire. The government is pursuing legislation intended to change how developers can meet obligations for protected species by allowing compensation or habitat creation elsewhere, a move critics including the Bat Conservation Trust have called a potential "licence to destroy nature."

Lincolnshire council officials have warned that without acceptable mitigation, Natural England’s position would carry weight with the planning authority and could lead to a recommendation to refuse the road’s planning permission. Reform councillors argue the county can either insist on the original planning permission without the extra measures or halt the project; opponents say refusing the mitigation could jeopardise funding and legal consent for the road.

A spokesman for the developers said the mitigation proposals were prepared in response to ecological survey findings and the council’s legal obligations. Work on the North Hykeham Relief Road remains on the schedule provided by the authority, but with the new cost estimate and unresolved disagreement over the bat measures, the project faces a period of political and planning uncertainty.

Council leaders now must decide whether to fund the mitigation, revise proposals to address ecological concerns in a different way, or seek a planning route that would allow construction to proceed without the proposed bridge and tunnel. Any change in approach is likely to prompt further scrutiny from conservation groups, local residents and the planning authority as the county balances infrastructure needs and statutory wildlife protections.