Spending £100 million on a bat house… It’s a bats--- bat house.”“It’s just a waste of money – but anything to do with HS2 is,” she mutters from behind the bar. She suggests that, at this point, the bats are getting a better deal than the residents themselves,

Built to appease Natural England, the 1km structure is one of more than 8,000 permissions HS2 has had to secure during phase one of the project, which is evidence, the chairman says, of the UK's "genuine problem" with completing such plans.

Questions have been asked after HS2 said it had to apply for more than 8,000 consents.

It is a grey, misty morning in Twyford, Buckinghamshire, and the mood is as downcast as the weather. The village’s residents have endured more than a decade of disruption and delays due to the High Speed 2 project.

A special barrier which will be built to protect rare bats will cost £100m, according to the chairman of HS2 Ltd.