He said the “bat shed” was his favourite example of the problems caused. The Bechstein’s bat was “generally pretty available in most of northern Europe, western Europe”, he said. “But nevertheless, under the Wildlife Act, 1981, it’s deemed to be a protected species in the UK, this bat, even though there’s lots of them.”

The bat is rare in the UK and deemed to be “vulnerable” in Europe, according to the IUCN conservation network’s red list.

He sounds like a bit of a prick trying to muddy the waters in an investigation into why the project went so over-budget under his watch.

“There were some rare bats we were legally obliged to protect, but we just had to drive the tracks right through the woods. We couldn’t come up with any viable solutions except an ugly shed, then when the council complained about how ugly it was, we went over their heads to central government and lawyered them into submission. Wow that was expensive, huh.”

You’ve heard of “Bike Shedding” (wasting time arguing about a pointless tangent)

Now get ready for “Bat Shedding” (wasting money arguing about a pointless tangent)

The trains are not even going to Euston.