Having been told by our Planning Authority that the minor domestic alterations we were proposing would require a Preliminary Bat Inspection, we approached seven ecology companies for a quote. All responded, but we found your agent Julia Clague-Robinson particularly helpful. She quickly passed the enquiry to one of your consultants, Josephine McCarthy, who took the trouble to follow it up with more detailed enquiries. She phoned and explained the issues involved, without blinding us with science and without the element of 'hard sell' that put us off some of the other companies. Having requested and examined detailed photos of the building in question she formed the opinion that it was likely to offer 'negligible' potential for bat roosting, a view shared by our architect. All the other companies seemed to automatically assume that its woodland setting would mean a full (and very expensive) 'Emergence Survey' would be needed, involving a six month delay to the project. Although not the cheapest option at £586, Josephine's refreshingly objective approach made Arbtech the obvious choice. Her survey followed within a week of confirming the booking and by the very next day, her highly detailed report confirming her initial impression was with the architect, an impressive rate of turn-around by any standards! We found her a pleasure to work with: objective, thorough and highly professional, but never condescending and able to explain clearly to us what she was looking for and why. In what feels like a growth industry urgently in need of some tighter regulation, too many ecology companies seem determined to extract the maximum amount of business from the client and the impression is that the issues are being pre-judged. It's easy to scare the uninitiated with hypothetical talk of 'probabilities' and 'potential' for bat activity, based simply on the location and the type of building involved, rather than any hard evidence. Arbtech seem to take a more balanced approach and, while it may not always generate the many thousands of pounds that a full (and possibly unjustified) survey would produce, it does create good customer relations and we would unhesitatingly recommend your company - and Josephine in particular - to anyone in a similar situation.