Eurobodalla Shire Councillor Liz Innes says she and fellow councillor Milton Leslight will launch a class action if nothing is done about Batemans Bay’s flying foxes.
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The pair met at the Water Gardens on Saturday with about 30 neighbouring residents who are upset at the numbers of bats roosting in the area.
They told them they would take legal action against the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) regarding the bats, which residents say have returned in greater numbers.
“We want to send a loud message that we are not prepared to put up with this,” Cr Innes said.
The councillors said they were angered at the perceived indifference of OEH staff, who recently visited the site, to the residents’ plight.
“What the OEH said is not good enough,” Cr Innes said.
“They say they (bats) are a protected species; well, so are people.”
Crs Innes and Leslight hope to meet residents and OEH staff as soon as possible. Both insisted they did not want the bats killed.
“We just want to move them on,” Cr Innes said.
“We want them to be happy somewhere else,” Cr Leslight said.
Resident Mary Brierley said on a rainy, windless day she had worn a breathing mask at home because of the smell.
Other residents said the bats now roosted in their yards and defecated in their water tanks and pools.
Long-term residents who moved to the area between 20 and 40 years ago said they had been there before the bats.