Generally speaking, no great crested newts is good news for
developers.
The shy, slimy creatures can cause costly re-thinks to building plans
because they are covered under EU law and the Wildlife and Countryside
Act, making it illegal to capture or kill them or to disturb their
habitat.
But for one council, news of the amphibians' absence has left them
crest-fallen - and =A31 million out of pocket.
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Protected: Great crested newts
Leicester****re County Council had already complied with Whitehall's
orders to spend that amount to protect a small "colony" of the
slippery customers after evidence of them was detected in ponds near a
major road building scheme.
Today, however, it was revealed that it was all money down the drain -
because further tests have now found there were no great crested newts
there at all.
The pointless outlay has prompted council leader David Parsons to
write to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs, demanding a policy re-think on newt protection.
"We have to safeguard wildlife, but we need a change in the law," Mr
Parsons said.
"This is an awful lot of money, and I think the public will take it
badly.
"We have to talk to government about the balance between money and
saving wildlife, because I don't think we have it right at the
moment."
As the Daily Mail re****ted in February, the council had to suspend
work on a =A315million bypass for the village of Earl ****lton after
evidence of the great crested newts, which grow up to 6in long, was
found nearby during surveys last summer.
A 1,000-yard exclusion zone was immediately thrown up around the ponds
while further tests were carried out. Experts later confirmed there
were probably no more than 10 newts and perhaps as few as just one.
Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of pounds still had to be spent on
newt-proof fences and special traps to help move the newts - or newt -
when hibernation ended in spring.
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