THE FORMER college building in Swindon town centre will now not be demolished before the end of the year.

And Swindon council has confirmed the delay is because of the presence of bats at the Regent Circus site.

Because the mammals are legally protected, an environmental survey needs to be carried out to find out how many bats there are in the building and then they need to be moved to another safe location. But it is not known how long this process will take.

And neither the developer, Ashfield Land, nor Swindon council could give the Adver more details as to what type of bat is roosting in the building.

Councillor Garry Perkins, deputy leader of Swindon Council, said: “We don’t know when the bats will be gone – it is not up to us, we have to wait for them to be removed.

“I remember this happened with the Shaw Ridge development when they had an issue with newts. The thing is because they are protected you have to count them all out and back in so we know how many there are in there.

“We then have to make sure we move them on safely and find a new home for them but we do not know when this is going to happen. It is not going to happen in the next week but we are hoping by the end of the year.

“Maybe we were asking too much before when we said it would be down by the beginning of the summer.”

The developers of the site are now in the process of carrying out a survey to assess how and when they can move the bats.

James Digby, director of Ashfield Land, said: “Previous ecological studies identified bats in the college.

“We are legally obliged to undertake further studies assessing the bats in the building and have commissioned and ecological consultant.”

Coun Perkins has insisted though that progress is being made with the redevelopment of the town.

“We already have the supermarket Morrisons signed up for the project as well as a cinema which has been signed up for a while and we have two definite restaurants and then another dozen who we are waiting to sign, so it is moving in the right direction,” he said.

“There is regeneration taking place already and we are starting to move in the right direction.

“The railway forecourt began this week and there is now grass on the former post office site and there are plenty of other things happening around the town.

“All the investment is there and things are happening. It is just because the college site is one of the main issues and people are waiting to see that come down.”