Newbury Town Council install 14 bat boxes in Victoria Park

A joint project with Berkshire Youth (BY) and Newbury Town Council’s green spaces working group offered children the opportunity to build a bat box during half term, writes Max Carter Keall.

The boxes were made at BY’s home in the Waterside Centre and were installed with the free help of Sundog Hire and CA Cook & Co Tree Service.

In total, 14 new roosting boxes have each been painted individually and, with the help of James Heasman, the town council’s parks and open spaces supervisor, have now been installed in Victoria Park.

Councillor Martha Vickers, a member of the town council’s green spaces working group, said: "We were delighted with the number of children who came along to get involved.

"Installing the bat boxes will help local bats, encouraging them to move into areas that have limited roosting space.

"All UK bats and their roosts are protected by law, which means it is illegal to harm or disturb them so once they are up, we hope that our newly installed boxes will make good homes for bats in the area and will help increase the bat population in Newbury."

The boxes are good news for Newbury’s bat population with the UK being home to 18 different species, the largest weighing the same as four £1 coins and the smallest weighing just as much as a 2p coin.