Wiltshire County Council has always had to survey the area for wildlife.

It is an established legal requirement, nothing recent.   But the County Council appears to have gone about this known requirement in an inefficient manner.

Dormice, for example, are at risk, have been diminishing due to loss of habitat and, crucially, are now a protected species that it is illegal to injure or disturb.

WCC has been dormice-denying, despite factual evidence that they are there.

Though WCC also expects dormice to run along ropes 6 metres above the road.

A review of WCC's surveys has said that not enough has been investigated.

Expert consultants researching the impact of an eastern Westbury bypass, which would run through 4km of quiet countryside close to the Salisbury Plain, have since discovered one of the richest areas for bats in South-West England and possibly in the whole of the UK.   Wellhead Valley, which is adjacent to the famous Westbury White Horse, holds a very rare 13 of Britain's 17 bat species, including all four listed for special protection in the European Habitats Directive.

These many bats in the Wellhead Valley deserve the best conservation efforts.

Bats fly on established routes.   Wellhead Valley is a Special Landscape Area and an undisturbed established habitat.  The bats will not adapt to new routes.

And the eastern bypass is planned to run the length of the Wellhead Valley.

Bats cannot be trained to fly through new underpasses....!     How unrealistic. Nor can bats be trained, amidst the disturbance of road construction, to follow artificial flight paths over a series of gantries, WCC's concept of nature first.

The bats would be killed or driven out by a new main road through the valley.