Great Crested Newt: The bane of the modern developer!
Listed below are just a few extracts from news items over the past four years, indicating just how costly the Great Crested Newt can be!
A new road in Leicestershire will cost an extra £1.7 million because of a great-crested newt colony which may be home to just one creature.
Angry council bosses have vowed to fight a requirement to safeguard the site after a study found it housed a maximum of just 10 newts.
Leicestershire County Council leader David Parsons said: “It is completely unacceptable.”
The Earl Shilton bypass will include £500,000 of newt-proof fences when it opens months later than originally planned.
(extract from mirror.co.uk)
A Preston politician has called for a species of newt to be taken off the protected list.
Great crested newts have become the scourge of any developer looking to build anything after establishing its last stronghold in the Red Rose county.
Experts planning a massive new business park, creating more than 1,000 jobs on the Preston East Employment Area near the M6, are the latest people to discover Triturus cristatus – as they are known in Latin – on their land.
In recent months, a scheme to build a new depot for Spar firm James Hall and Sons, and for a United Utilities electricity sub-station on the same site, have run into similar small and slimey problems.
Now, Preston’s deputy mayor, Coun Bill Tyson, has called for the newts to be taken off the protected species list. Their protected status means that every development site on which they are found is beset by delays as experts search every ditch and pond for them and then rehome any they discover.
Coun Tyson said: “We have got that many newts in this county now I do not know where we put them all.
“I think it is time we took them off this protected species list, they seem to be everywhere.”
However, the body appointed to protect the newts disagrees.
Heather McMorland, of Natural England, said: “The newts are a blessing or a curse, it depends which you look at it, but the bottom line is we have a duty to the future of Europe to protect these beautiful little creatures in the last place they exist.
“In other parts of the world they have been killed off by the destruction of their habitat and we have to stop that happening here – even if it does keep the bulldozers away for a bit.” (extract from Lancashire Evening Post)
Great crested newts could scupper plans to mine more than half a million tonnes of coal from a site in the North-East.
The discovery of a colony of the tiny animals – which are a protected species – in a pond on the site where opencast mining is proposed, near Consett, County Durham, has delighted campaigners opposed to the plans.
Derwentside councillors will be recommended by their planning officer to reject the application when they next meet.
Although the district does not have the final say and can only express its views – Durham County councillors are due to decide on UK Coal’s application in April – the planning officer’s recommendation of refusal was described as “extremely good news” by locals who fear disturbance, dust and noise.
UK Coal has submitted the planning application to Durham County Council to take 556,000 tonnes from 68 hectares of land off the A692 beneath the Pontop Pike TV mast, between the villages of Dipton and Leadgate. More than 3,000 locals signed a petition opposing the development.
UK Coal says the proposal would create 38 jobs, produce 556,000 tonnes of coal needed for the British steel or electricity industry, and provide a new conservation area after mining is completed within three years. But a council spokesperson said in a report to be considered by Derwentside’s development control committee: “There is likely to be significant impact upon the Brooms Pond and Great Crested Newt species.
“In addition to great crested newts, other species have been identified both on site and in the local area that could be affected during the operations. These include bats, badgers and birds.
“The loss of the Brooms Pond and harm to the Great Crested Newt population cannot be offset by the creation of new habitats taking into account the difficulty with translocation.”
The report was welcomed by members of residents’ group The Pont Valley Network, which is opposed to the application. A representative said: “The great crested newts are a show-stopper, and a recent survey found 47 in the pond. We believe the site is also home to badgers and bats, while somebody spotted a rare butterfly species,The Dingy Skipper.”
A Durham and Derwentside councillor said: “This area has been ravaged by industry in the past and should now be allowed to recover.” But a spokesman for UK Coal, said: “Great crested newts are not an impediment. They are a protected species, but we can and we will create safe new habitats for them.” (extract by Neil Mckay, The Journal)
“Fifteen great crested newts added £315,000to the cost of a road-widening project in North Wales and five slow worms caused a six-month delay on a house-building project after Natural England - the agency that advises the Government on nature conservation - stepped in to stop work at the site.” (extract from telegraph co.uk 2007)
Newts may block building of executive homes:
Residents living near the breeding ponds of great crested newts hope to halt the building of 26 executive homes near their habitat.
The newts are a protected species and have been seen in Ffordd Pen y Maes in Trefnant near Denbigh.
Local people say they are anxious their natural habitat is not disturbed, and if building firm Anwyl is given planning permission they will ask the Welsh Assembly Government to intervene. (extract BBC News 2004)
Four great crested newts were found during a survey of the proposed building site at Fallibroome High School in Macclesfield.
The tracking, trapping and relocation of the newts cost the council £60,000.
Great crested newts are a protected species under European law and planning applications infringing their habitats are routinely turned down unless it can be shown that measures have been taken to safeguard their numbers.
Cheshire councillor Barrie Hardern has written to Environment Secretary Hilary Benn complaining about the excessive use of public money in this particular case.”Around £15,000 per newt seems a ludicrous sum of money to me,” said Cllr Harden. (2008)
Landfill site bosses fear they may have to make 30 workers redundant if a row over a colony of great crested newts is not resolved.
Wastego, which operates the Thornhaugh Quarry and Landfill site, near Peterborough, has been told that strict planning conditions concerning the welfare of newts – which are protected by law – have not been met.
Peterborough City Council and English Nature have expressed concern that the site is being used for landfilling before newts, that are known to occupy it, have been moved to safety.
Wastego has been warned that if newts are being put at risk an injunction, banning all work at the site, could be issued.Cliff Thurlow, technical director for Wastego, said: “If work at the site is halted, 30 workers would immediately have to be laid off.
“It would be terrible news for the company and we feel it would be unfair because we have been trying hard to address the issues raised by the local authority.
“The planning conditions were made long before Wastego occupied the site and as such we have struggled to meet the requirements within the specified time.”
Peterborough City Council and English Nature want all newts inhabiting the site to be relocated to a specially designated and fenced off area.
Mr Thurlow said the safe area has already been prepared and that Wastego staff have applied for a licence granting them permission to move the newts.
Wastego also claim that if an injunction was served, up to £250,000 of money accumulated each year through the Landfill Tax Credit would be lost.
The Government scheme allows landfill site operators to donate up to 6.5 per cent of their tax liability to environmental projects and the firm says the Thornhaugh area will benefit from funds if it is allowed to continue operating.
Jennie Kendall, a spokesman for Peterborough City Council, said that legal discussions have been taking place in an effort to keep the site operational.
She said: “The planning permission agreed was subject to a number of conditions.
“One of those conditions referred to the protection of great crested newts on the site.”
She added: “Legal discussions have been taking place to bring the development back into line with planning conditions that apply to the site.” (extract from peterboroughtoday.co.uk 2004)
And Finally for now:
A builder was fined £8,400 for damaging the habitat of great crested newts in 2007