Cash-strapped council criticised for building luxury home for bats

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Deadline News/REX Shutterstock (4883680a)The two storey luxury bat homeCouncil criticised for building luxury ï¿½16,000 home for bats, Errogie, Scotland - 25 Jun 2015*Full story: http://www.rexfeatures.com/nanolink/qkhoA cash-strapped council has been condemned for lavishing ï¿½16,000 on a luxury home for bats in an area with a chronic housing shortage. Highland Council spent ï¿½12,000 of taxpayers' cash on the two-storey wooden bathouse which boasts a tiled roof and dormer windows. The authority paid a 'bat consultant' a further ï¿½4,040 to advise on the project south of Inverness. The spending has been branded as "outrageous" by locals - some of whom have to live in caravans for months while they wait for affordable housing to become available.

A cash-strapped council has been condemned for spending £16,000 on a luxury home for bats in an area with a chronic housing shortage.

Highland Council spent £12,000 of taxpayers' cash on the two-storey wooden bat house which boasts a tiled roof and dormer windows.

The authority paid a 'bat consultant' a further £4,040 to advise on the project, located south of Inverness.

The spending has been branded as "outrageous" by locals - some of whom have to live in caravans for months while they wait for affordable housing to become available.

And taxpayers' groups said it was wrong to spend so much money on 'social housing for bats' when people need places to live. Highland Council last year announced a £64m budget cut over the next five years.

The row centres on the hamlet of Errogie, about 20 miles south of Inverness, where protected pipistrelle and brown long-eared bats roosted in the eaves and outbuildings of an elderly lady's home.

When Marie Greenaway died in February, her property was taken by Highland Council to cover nursing home fees. The council decided to demolish the property and build two homes for affordable rent on the site.

Local Heather Parrot, 54, told Press and Journal: "It seems outrageous. All the bats needed was a bit of old building or a bit of old roof."

A spokesman for Taxpayers Scotland told The Scotsman: "Scotland's bats did perfectly well before they were given social housing, and one has to ask how successful they imagine the bat house will be.

"Will they direct bats with signage towards their new accommodation?"