Ozzy Osbourne's barn is infested with a protected species of bats.

The 60-year-old star - who bit the head off a bat which he thought was rubber while performing in Iowa in in 1982 - wants to convert a 17th-century barn near his Buckinghamshire mansion into a two-bedroom home but he was refused planning permission after brown long-eared bats were found in the property.

A source told The Sun newspaper: ''The irony isn't lost on Ozzy that karma has finally caught up with him. The bats' natural habitat is prevented from being damaged by law.

''The survey stated any work to convert the barn would affect the bats so it could take years for Ozzy's plans to be approved.''

Previously, the famed encounter between Ozzy and the bat was recollected in the booklet to the 2002 edition of 'Diary of a Madman', where he claims the bat was alive and managed to bite him, resulting in him needing to be treated for rabies - which is a viral disease that can cause inflammation of the brain and can be spread through a bite or scratch from an animal.

He said later: ''Something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid. Then the head in my mouth twitched.''