[update
14/10/2007]
Npower
have constructed a causeway leading from the byway alongside
Thrupp Lake to Lake G to the East. Unmentionable stuff
has been laid under the byway, and a new surface laid
on top.
The
view across Thrupp Lake from the west on the 8th October
2007,
showing
npower's new construction site.
A newt barrier has now
been constructed most of the way around the lake. This
intrusive and unsightly artifice is to prevent great
crested newts from entering the lake, which they may
do in the spring, in order to breed. The design of the
barrier is such that the newts leaving the lake will
tend to follow the line of the barrier and fall into
one of a number traps placed along its length. About
30 great crested newts had been caught this way as of
8th October, which is a considerable number considering
that it would represent only a small proportion of the
number on the site as a whole.
The
newts, we are assured, will be released elsewhere in
the area.
The great crested newt (Triturus cristatus)
enjoys, or rather should enjoy, the highest possible
level of protection under European law through the EC
Habitats Directive (Annexes 2 and 4); the Bern Convention;
and the UK Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations
1994; and under Schedule 5 of the UK Wildlife and Countryside
Act 1981.
This
presence of this species had the potential to cause
npower some problems with their planning permission.
Npower's Environmental Statement quite unashamedly plays
down both the extent of presence of great crested newts,
and the importance of the lake to them.
In
early 2006, when the Thrupp Lake planning application
was still being put together, Little Wittenham Nature
Reserve was declared a Special Area of Conservation
largely on the basis of its population of great crested
newts. |
