BATS which were found in a soon-to-be demolished building in Radlett are moving house in the New Year. Two brown long-eared bats were discovered on a Herts Partnership NHS Foundation Trust site in Harperbury earlier this month where they had adopted one

BATS which were found in a soon-to-be demolished building in Radlett are moving house in the New Year.

Two brown long-eared bats were discovered on a Herts Partnership NHS Foundation Trust site in Harperbury earlier this month where they had adopted one of the old buildings as their roosting site.

The Trust, determined to rehouse the displaced bats, enlisted the help of ecological consultancy company Naturally Wild to protect the pair. Fifteen state-of-the-art bat boxes have now been installed around the site and it is hoped that common pipistrelle bats, the UK's smallest mammal, will also build a new home in them.

Both species are found in low numbers across Herts and, although originally bats would have made their home in trees, nowadays roofs or bat boxes make far safer abodes.

Frankie Lowe, senior ecologist at Naturally Wild, said of their bat project: "We are delighted with the new bat boxes which we hope will be used by several bat species in the area. Having been inside the drafty, broken roof where they were found, I know which home I would prefer if I were a bat - the new bat boxes are far more luxurious!