Health and safety’ concerns stopped East Devon putting bird and bat boxes on HQ

Bird and bat boxes weren’t installated at a Devon council’s headquarters when it was built because of health and safety concerns, and that the boxes could fall down or damage brickwork.

One of its own councillors has criticised East Devon District Council for fnot providing homes for birds and bats at its Blackdown House offices in Honiton.

Cllr Jess Bailey (Independent, West Hill and Aylesbeare) has submitted a motion urging the council to put in boxes after discovering there aren’t any.

The authority says the building didn’t include built-in boxes, but head meant to fit them instead, before “significant health and safety” concerns intervened.

The offices were built in 2019, with conditions including that detailed plans be submitted for the location of animal habitats.

A 2015 report commissioned by the council from Devon Wildlife Consultants also suggested boxes for house martins and house sparrows be attached to the building.

Cllr Bailey had been preparing a motion about the declining swift population in the UK, with an idea that the council should install boxes for them.

But when she investigated what measures were already in place at Blackdown House to protect wildlife, she could find nothing.

“You can imagine my extreme disappointment to then discover that there were conditions in the 2016 planning permission for Blackdown House relating to bats and bird boxes and habitat piles for slow worms, but no one had installed them,” she said.

“This would be bad for any applicant, but for EDDC as a public authority and the planning authority not to have its own house in order is really shocking.

“The design build, fit out and relocation to Blackdown House cost £8.7 million. That EDDC did not comply with its own ecology requirements is very poor and raises questions about what went awry with the project management back in 2018/19 as surely complying with planning conditions is a fundamental part of project management.”

A spokesperson for the council said that its health and safety team and external consultants had noted “significant health and safety concerns” with the notion of attaching boxes to the building when it was being constructed.

“There were risks [identified] of heavy boxes corroding over time and potentially falling on to pathways below, and worries that attaching boxes to the building could damage the brickwork,” the spokesperson said.

The council has put 21 swift boxes elsewhere on other sites it owns and says bird and bat boxes were fixed to mature trees between Blackdown House and Exeter Road.

It is now looking at potential locations for the boxes around Blackdown House, as well as “other nature supporting initiatives” once they have been installed.

“The council plans to install around 15 to 20 swift boxes to the building before May 2025, subject to health and safety sign-off,” the spokesperson said.

“Proposed new designs for the boxes mean they would be lighter, installed at a lower height, and be easier to monitor.”

Cllr Bailey emphasised an ecological crisis in the UK which puts the country “in the bottom 10 per cent of countries globally for biodiversity and is the worst G7 nation for biodiversity loss”.

She fears that if the council hasn’t enforced ecological conditions on its own building then it would be questionable as to how well it ensures developers  abide by them.

“It raises really significant concerns about the extent to which as a planning authority we monitor the implementation of ecology conditions across the district,” she said.

“How many thousands of wildlife conditions, like those at Blackdown House, are languishing ignored and unfulfilled and at what cost to our wildlife?”