First snails, now badgers threaten Newbury bypass
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Following hot on the slime trail of a rare snail, badgers may come to the rescue of the countryside in the path of the Newbury bypass.
A badger sett, which cannot be legally disturbed without a licence from English Nature, has been discovered at the southern end of the bypass route. Even with a licence, badgers, Britain's most heavily protected mammals, cannot be disturbed between November and July.
Work was halted on one section of the route yesterday and cordoned off to allow wild mammal experts to inspect the sett. They concluded that it was occupied, forcing the Highways Agency to halt the work in the area until at least July.
The contractors have until April to clear the bypass route and the discovery, at a strategically important location, could significantly disrupt work on one stretch of the bypass.
The discovery is seen by conservationists as yet another embarrassment for the Highways Agency. On Wednesday, colonies of an internationally endangered snail were discovered on the route of the road.
Britain is obliged under European law to preserve the habitats of the snail, which will be significantly affected or destroyed at several locations by a 100-metre-wide embankment across the Rack Marsh nature reserve.
The agency has drawn significant criticism for not conducting an environmental impact assessment on the road, preferring instead to conduct their own surveys. Tony Juniper, of Friends of the Earth, questions the effectiveness of the surveys which failed to identify both the snail colonies and the badger sett.
"Badgers are big, hairy and have large stripy heads. If they've overlooked these creatures goodness knows what else they've missed. One wonders if they'll find herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Kennet flood plain next," said Mr Juniper.
A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said it had relocated badgers from "at least three setts". Badgers, she said, are very "transient creatures" and frequently move between setts.
"Badgers will colonise new areas and there's nothing we can do about that. We rely on the advice of external ecologists and if anything else comes to light then we will take action accordingly," she said.
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