A European directive and a common amphibian have delayed a £140m scheme in one of the housing growth areas.
Project manager Trench Farrow plans to build 1300 homes on the site of former barracks in Ashford, Kent – home to a colony of great crested newts.

The newts are not rare in the UK but are a protected species under European law. If they are found on a site, the developer must ask the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for a licence to move them while work is done.

This process means long delays: the licence takes up to two months to process but developers can only apply after they receive detailed planning permission. To make matters more complicated, the newts can only be caught between February and April when they return to their ponds to breed.

Trench Farrow has not yet received detailed permission so cannot apply. If it does not get the licence before the next breeding season, it will not be able to round up newts until 2005.

This delay would cost millions – on top of the £100,000 already set aside for "newt mitigation work".

Paul Sparinggay, project manager at Trench Farrow, said: "It's happening on other sites too."

Source

Housing Today