Bats have been discovered roosting in a disused community pub, making it impossible for the council to carry out its controversial deal to sell it to a developer, campaigners have claimed.

The fanged and winged rodents have been captured at dusk hovering around the Morden Tavern, in Central Road, according the campaign group set up a year ago to protect the council-owned pub from demolition.

David Smith, chairman of the Campaign for Morden Tavern, said the council had not yet conducted a proper survey of whether bats live on the site.

If true, the presence of bats could scupper the council's current plan to sell the site to a developer, subject to planning permission being granted.

Mr Smith said: “The planning committee shouldn’t have considered the application because the developer hasn’t fulfilled all the legal criteria, such as doing a bat survey.

“We believe there could be as many as four or five different species of bats living there. We raised this issue with the council but it was not considered.”

Since launching his campaign a year ago against the council’s plan to sell the site to Reef Estates, Mr Smith has argued St Helier will lose a community hub and that the council is short-changing the public purse by only selling the site for £875,000.

A petition has been launched on Merton Council’s website to ask for an independent valuation of the site, which CMT thinks would reach at least double the price.

After the decision to give planning permission was deferred by councillors in July because they were not satisfied with the design of the proposed development, Reef Estates’ planning application is not likely to be considered again by the council until November.

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