‘It’s bats--t’: The villagers up in arms over HS2’s £100m bat shed

Even those in favour of environmental protections strongly criticise the overspending that has dogged the project as a whole, which eventually led to it being dramatically scaled back by the Conservatives. Roger Landells, 79, the chairman of Twyford parish council, has been told that the enormous structure is “world beating” and the “first of its kind”. “There are very few people who have a good word to say about HS2, if for no other reason than that it is highly destructive of the land, it’s stopping a lot of people from using the countryside because footpaths are closed, and everything takes at least 50 per cent longer than they say it is going to. The bat is “generally pretty available in most of northern Europe, western Europe,” he added. “But nevertheless, under the Wildlife Act 1981, it’s deemed to be a protected species in the UK, this bat, even though there’s lots of them.” He suggested that Buckinghamshire County Council and Natural England disagreed with HS2 about measures to protect bats living on the planned route of the line, resulting in “hundreds of thousands of pounds” being spent on lawyers and consultants.