Council fuming at £60,000 bill to find newts a new home

Cheshire County Council are fuming after discovering that EU regulations require them to find a new home for newts that have been found on school land which is earmarked for a new building.

The bill for re-homing the newts will total £60,000, equal to £15,000 for each of the four great crested newts that were found on the site.

Under European law great crested newts are a protected species. Applications for buildings that infringe upon their habitats are turned down unless measures are taken to safeguard their numbers.

Councillor Barrie Hardern of Cheshire County Council called the £15,000 per newt a “ludicrous sum”.

He said: “[Great crested newts] are a legally protected species under EU regulations because there are parts of Europe where they are quite rare.

“However in Cheshire we have in the order of 16,000 ponds and newts are widespread and locally abundant.

“The EU regulations together with UK legislation carry substantial fines if we do not protect the newts as part of planning applications.

“I am very concerned about tax payers money being used in this way in what appears to be a ridiculous situation.”

Great crested newts are the largest species in Britain. They can live for up to 27 years, and reach up to 17cm in length. There are estimated to be 400,000 great crested newts in the UK, spread across 18,000 breeding sites.

Cllr Hardern is being backed up by Cheshire’s executive member for the Environment Andrew Needham. Mr. Needham said: “I will be raising the issue at EU level with our European Members of Parliament.

“There is a growing national debate on this issue and we in this country rigorously uphold the law whether we like it or not but the time has come for a major rethink.

“The county council fully accepts its environmental responsibilities, and we aim to ensure that wildlife is properly protected from developments.

“However we do wonder if such sums of money would be better spent investing in improvements to the wider pond network, which would benefit not only great crested newts but all types of wetland wildlife.”