Families trying to thwart nearby property developers install bat boxes to try and attract the legally protected winged creatures and slow down building work

Families opposed to major redevelopment plans on their estate have installed dozens of bat boxes in a bid to slow down building work by attracting the legally protected species. 

Flagship Group plans to demolish and rebuild almost 50 per cent of the 1,100 homes on Abbey Estate in Thetford, Norfolk, and add 500 more properties to the area. 

But residents against the proposal have installed 130 bat boxes to attract certain forms of the species, which are legally shielded under planning rules. 

Several bat species are listed as ‘rare’, meaning developers must comply with the legal protection of them. 

If the right bat species end up inhabiting in the boxes, the developers may be forced to postpone their plans. 

Resident Fiona Kiane, from the Abbey Estate Action Group, said locals have erected well over 100 bat boxes around the estate. 

Residents of Abbey Estate have set up an action group to encourage more residents to install bat boxes on their homes 

A bat box is seen at the top of one of the properties on Abbey Estate in Thetford, Norfolk 

Ms Kiane has placed one of the boxes on the property she bought more than 20 years ago, which was set to be destroyed. 

She told the BBC: ‘We have done a lot of research to find out what encourages bats – what they eat, which is the best direction for a bat box to face.’ 

Another member of the action group, Cathy Spillane, said the plan was ‘a bit out there’ but homeowners were ‘making a strong signal’. 

‘The bat boxes are a way of people on the estate taking back some agency on what is happening to them. We feel very much that this is an unnecessary development that is being done to us,’ she said. 

Abbey Estate Action Group posts regular updates on Facebook encouraging locals to install a box on their property in order to bring the redevelopment plans to a halt. 

One update said: ‘We will be out this evening putting up more bat boxes!

‘If you would like one, let us know! Say NO the Flagship. Say No to the DISASTERPLAN. SAVE OUR BATS.’ 

Flagship Group claimed the redevelopment would improve the estate and provide hundreds of new homes. 

James Payne, regeneration director of the site, also claimed the company has its own intentions to install bat boxes on the estate. 

It would not be the first time protected species have caused planning development problems, with developers forking out thousands per animal to catch and relocate them elsewhere. 

Abbey Estate Action Group posts regular updates on Facebook encouraging locals to install a box on their property 

It comes after a building firm in Milton Keynes was forced to spend more than £1million catching great crested newts (pictured) because they are a protected species (Stock photo) 

Ten years ago, a building firm was forced to spend more than £1million catching newts because they are a protected species. 

Around 150 great crested newts had to be relocated from land set aside for new homes, costing Gallagher Estates an average of £6,700 per creature.

The newts were in the way of building work on a 900-acre site in Milton Keynes. 

The project was held up for a year while wildlife experts rounded them up and took them to specially created ponds. 

All companies have a legal obligation to protect the species and anyone harming them can face prosecution and possibly even prison. 

Last year, locals slammed police for leaving them ‘high and dry’ after the force closed a probe into housing developers who felled an entire woodland that is home to a protected bat species without warning.

Villagers in Corfe Mullen, Dorset, were horrified when a team of workmen were tasked by a ruthless developer to chop down about 20 trees on a one-acre plot over the course of one day. 

Residents were fuming after Dorset Police dropped their investigation into the woodland that was destroyed in 14 hours, citing insufficient evidence of wildlife crime.

The wooded garden was believed to have been an important wildlife haven for bats, owls and woodpeckers, but it was razed to the ground, without any notice by contractors. 

MailOnline has contacted Flagship Group for comment.