There was the story of possibly a single Great Crested Newt stopping a bypass at Earl Stilton and now I read that Great Crested Newts may keep a family out of their £1million home.
The Histed's 18th century farm house was flooded last July and since then have been living in a caravan. They had almost finished £250,000 of repairs when a blocked drainage ditch near their garden caused the property to flood again.
Apparently the environment agency have barred them from unblocking the ditch because it's believed the newts live there. The survey work will take three months BUT can't start until Summer because birds may be nesting in the hedge rows.
Mrs Histed, a retired doctor, said
I know it's the law, but it's very frustrating and bordering on the ridiculous that the fate of newts takes precedence over humans.
Is it reasonable for us to just sit here and watch if the ditch floods our home again just because there may be some newts there?
I so have some sympathy with them but I do think there is something rather British about a 3 inch newt being the cause of the delay. And, although in there circumstances I would beg to differ, we shouldn't assume Humans are the be and end all.
Although its perhaps even more ironic that the Histed's have a pond in the garden which is home to...... Great Crested Newts.
According to an Environment Agency spokesman said
The EU legislation makes it an offence to disturb any habitat of a protected species so anyone who wants to do work on a watercourse has to check they are not present.
2 comments:
Let me know where we can get some, and they will be spread all along the hillside where they want to put the windfarm! Funny, we were only talking about this last night. We also want a lot more red squirrels if you see any. :)
i know some one who bought a house, on a big plot with pond.
The idea was to knock down house, fill in pond, build three houses and make money.
Guess what stopped him. Only two great crested newts.
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