When each side is winding up like an overwound watch, it can help to look each other in the eye and say, “Let’s agree to disagree.” This is particularly helpful if there’s a snowflake’s chance in hell that you’re going to convince each other.

Last time I spoke to Councillor Bobby Bourke – at a garage sale in South Bathurst – we reiterated our shared support for promoting electric cars but politely disagreed about the bats that camped out in Machattie Park last summer.

With the tabling of the Camp Management Plan by Eco Logical Australia last week, Cr Bourke was quick to reaffirm his anti-bat stance. “I want to make sure in this plan that we’re attacking the bats,” he said.

Will we see our furry little mammalian friends again when the weather warms up? Grey headed flying foxes roam the landscape, heading for warmer climes in winter, searching out the nectar of flowering trees in spring and summer. Now that they know the park provides a cool spot to sleep through hot days, they might be back. But they might not be, too. They’re not entirely predictable.

Eco Logical Australia’s report revealed that Bathurst residents are overall more concerned about the effects on the park’s trees than they are about the welfare of the bats.

The report outlines three levels of management, from monitoring and community education at Level 1, to passive deterrence at Level 2, to Level 3, which is “active dispersal”. These levels would kick in at higher bat numbers in the park.

As average temperatures continue to rise with climate change, we need all the large, shady trees we can get. So community concern is justified.

But we need to remember that the bats are our little refugees: they are desperate, hungry and dwindling in numbers as their usual habitats are destroyed to make way for human activity. We can do our best to take care of them, even as they make a bid for the shade trees that we’ve planted for ourselves. Their presence can teach us a lot about the natural world we live in and how best to respond to it.

In the long term, the best way we can get to a win-win locally is by ensuring that there are enough trees along the river (their preferred roost) to allow them to live nearby without wanting to hang out in the CBD. This would also bring many other environmental benefits.

The Camp Management Plan, currently sitting in council’s business papers online, will be available for public comment for 28 days.