Cost of 'bat shed' near HS2 line is £100m, chair says

The cost of a "bat shed" to protect a species along the new HS2 high-speed line has risen to more than £100m, HS2 Ltd's chair has revealed.

- Gwyn Topham

The 1km-long mesh structure will be built where the London to Birmingham line emerges from a tunnel in woodland in Buckinghamshire, to protect a colony of Bechstein's bats.

Describing it as a "blot on the landscape" with "no evidence" that bats were at risk from the trains, Sir Jon Thompson said: "This shed, you're not going to believe this, cost more than £100m."

Thompson said the railway's budget was partly driven by legal constraints and the demands of conflicting agencies, as well as government indecision, with more than 8,000 permits needed along the route. He gave the example of the Sheephouse Wood bat protection structure, adding: "We call it a shed."

Speaking to the Rail Industry Association conference in London, Thompson said: "To build a railway between Euston and Curzon Street in Birmingham, I need 8,276 consents from other public bodies, planning, transport, the Environment Agency or Natural England. They don't care whether parliament did or didn't approve building a railway."