Bats and Breathable Roofing Membranes

BCT has supported and been involved in research investigating Bats and Breathable roofing membranes, in collaboration with Reading University's department of Technologies and Sustainable Built Environment (TSBE). Stacey Waring, the research engineer leading this work, has now completed her doctoral research and details of the main findings will be circulated in due course.

Going forwards, BCT supports further work that will identify remedial measures and products that may prevent roofs with breathable roofing membranes becoming a problem in future for bats. This is where we see the top priority for focusing future research and resources, and a recent Steering Group meeting with Industry, heritage organisations and ecological consultants endorsed this view.

Stacey has launched a crowd fundraising site to raise funds to continue her research. We support this work. It is very broad and ambitious and we do feel it will benefit from a clear focus on developing remedial measures and bat friendly products, with timescales.

BCT will continue to coordinate the Bats and BRMs Steering group with Stacey, industry partners and the statutory nature conservation organisations and we will continue to disseminate information and work to ensure it is incorporated into guidance.