An anti-fracking councillor hopes the tiny Great Crested Newt could yet stop an exploratory borehole being drilled by an energy company on the outskirts of Chester.
Labour Cllr Matt Bryan believes IGas and his own planning authority should not be relying on a six-year-old survey which found no evidence of the protected species at the Duttons Lane field in Upton where a protest camp was established in April 2014 in a bid to stop the test drill going ahead.
But when Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) gave planning permission in 2013 its biodiversity team concluded the results of the 2009 survey were still valid adding that the site had recently been ploughed and ‘therefore provides no suitable foraging habitat’.
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Cllr Bryan, who represents Upton on CWaC, said: “The information is massively out of date. The team felt the fact the field had been ploughed two years ago superseded the need for a new newt survey. That data is now six years old while typically the industry standard is that it should be no older than two or three years.”
The campaigning councillor, who is holding high level meetings with senior Labour members in the administration and hopes to enlist the support of Chester Zoo, believes a new newt survey must be carried out before work starts.
But he points out the survey would have to be carried out between March and mid June when adult newts return to the ponds to mate. In terms of the timescale, the councillor said this was ‘running it very close’ because planning consent expired at the end of May.
Cllr Bryan admitted he had not seen any newts at the site himself, but commented: “The whole place is riddled with them. It’s common knowledge there are newts in that area.”
Since the 1940s, populations of Great Crested Newts have declined in most of Europe due to loss of habitat. In England, Wales, and Scotland, it is a protected species under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is also a European Protected Species and as such has additional protection in the UK.
But commenting prior to planning consent being granted, the CWaC biodiversity team concluded there were ‘no known ecological impacts or issues arising from this application’.
The team wrote: “No great crested newts were recorded in three surveyed ponds within 250m of the site in 2009. The results of this survey are still valid. The site has been ploughed recently and therefore provides no suitable foraging habitat and a 10m standoff is provided between the site boundary and the nearest hedgerow in any case.”
Cllr Bryan says a recent High Court ruling also shows planning applications relating to mineral extraction like the one in Duttons Lane should have been treated as ‘major applications’ and as such not have been decided by individual officers under delegated powers but should have been determined by the council’s strategic planning committee. He said: “Significant questions need, therefore, to be answered as to the legality of these decisions.”
But CWaC strategic director Charlie Seward responded: “The council is content that all planning applications in relation to exploratory minerals extraction have been determined in accordance with law, national guidance and the council’s constitution.”
