A £100 million development at a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf resort has been delayed for months to protect a colony of rare bats.

A new hotel complex at the St Mellion Golf and Country Club near Liskeard, Cornwall, cannot go ahead until the brown long-eared bats are found a new home.

Developers who are trying to restore the resort to a championship course have called in bat experts to help them to sort out the problem.

St Mellion used to attract the world’s best golfers to the Benson and Hedges tournament at the start of the season but it was moved because of complaints by players.

A special bats’ dormitory may have to be built to lure them out of the old buildings that need to be redeveloped. The bats have already started hibernating and so cannot be disturbed until they wake up in February or March.

Barrie Aspinall, the development manager, said: “We cannot do anything which can impact negatively on their environment. We can’t do anything until they arise out of hibernation in February and it may be later than that if we have a long winter.”

Ecologists are to install bat boxes around the old buildings to tempt them in.

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