A cash-strapped council has been condemned for lavishing £16,000 on a luxury home for bats in an area with a chronic housing shortage.
Highland Council spent £12,000 of taxpayers’ cash on the two-storey wooden bathouse with a tiled roof and dormer windows.
And the authority paid a “bat consultant” a further £4,040 to advise on the project south of Inverness.
The spending was branded as “outrageous” by locals – some of whom have to live in caravans for months while they wait for affordable housing to become available.
And taxpayers’ groups said it was wrong to spend so much money on “social housing for bats”.
The row centres on the hamlet of Errogie, where protected pipistrelle and brown long-eared bats roosted in the eaves and outbuildings of a local woman’s home.
When owner Mairi Greenaway died in February, her property was taken by Highland Council to cover nursing home fees. It demolished the property and built two homes for affordable rent.
But Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) stepped in and told council chiefs to accommodate the bats.
The structure is so large that a neighbouring landowner was asked to “lend” part of their property.
Local Heather Parrot, 54, said: “It seems outrageous. All the bats needed was a bit of old building or a bit of old roof.”
Local barman Tom Bryant, 29, waited nearly four years for a housing association property in the area, living in short-term rents, including empty holiday accommodation.
Mr Bryant added that his brother, Jack, who works in a local hotel, is living in a caravan while he waits for affordable housing.
A Taxpayers Scotland spokesman said: “Scotland’s bats did perfectly well before they were given social housing, and one has to ask how successful they imagine the bat house will be.”
Ben Ross, SNH’s licensing manager, said they often asked for replacement on a like-for-like basis, with roosts often incorporated into existing structures or new buildings.
A Highland Council spokeswoman said they were required by SNH to get a European Protected Species Licence for the affordable homes development.
“The licence required the provision of Bat Compensatory measures as specified in the Bat Protection Plan, which forms part of the Licence,” said a spokeswoman.
“It is of high specification in order to provide a durable structure.”