Yet More Fab Reporting from the BBC...


It appears that poor old great crested newts are being blamed for holding up yet another bypass.

The BBC is reporting that work started on the Earl Shilton bypass in September. Despite the fact that the bypass has been planned for more than 20 years, the BBC report claims...

"But a colony of great crested newts has been found and their protected status means it is illegal to disturb them."

So, let's just review that again. The bypass has been planned for 20 years. Great crested newts have just been found. The great crested newts are now holding up construction works. Is that really true?!

According to the BBC, the Leicestershire County Council's director of highways is reported as saying:
"It is very difficult to detect these species and no matter how much you do to detect these creatures, it's not necessarily going to be comprehensive.
"We are hopeful though that we can make up the time and get back on track. There have been some real horror stories in other parts of the country and our situation could have been much worse."

Difficult to detect! Really! Something sounds fishy to me...

I suggest that if environmental issues had been adequately considered at some point during those 20 years of planning, the presence of great crested newt would have been determined earlier and there would have been no delay to the scheme - at least not due to the presence of newts.

Of course, this story is being reported by the BBC - so who knows what the real truth of the matter is.

Digging a little deeper into this story it appears that survey work was carried out before planning permission was granted. According to the Leicester Mercury:

"A routine wildlife survey was carried out before planning permission was given for the bypass in 2006, but no newts were found."


Apparently a planning consultant (presumably involved with the scheme) has suggested that:

"Sometimes, it can be a case of transferring animals and we have to employ a botanist in the surveys, which is expensive."


Are we getting to the truth of the matter here?! A 'routine' survey was carried out - by botanists?! Perhaps if a more thorough survey had been undertaken by consultants sufficiently experienced in great crested newt survey work, the likely presence of the newts would not have been missed. The Leicester Mercury goes on to quote a local county councillor as stating:


"It is incredible that a few newts could have that effect on a scheme such as this."


What is incredible is that local authorities and developers still do not give sufficient consideration to the need for detailed survey work and continually fail to allocate the necessary resources to ensure that detailed and thorough ecological assessments are undertaken in advance of major development projects.

The newts were there all along. Don't blame them.


Lee Brady
KRAG Chairman

Posted: Sun - February 3, 2008 at 10:52 am        

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