Council spends £1million protecting newt colony - then discover they don't exist

Generally speaking, no great crested newts is good news for developers.

The shy amphibians can force building plans to be redrawn because they are protected by EU law and the Wildlife and Countryside Act, making it illegal to capture or kill them or disturb their habitat.

But a lack of them has left Leicestershire Council crestfallen and £1million poorer.

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Officers spent the money to protect a suspected colony after finding evidence of them in ponds by a £15million road scheme.

But yesterday they admitted it was all money down the drain after more tests showed no great crested newts at all.

The episode prompted council leader David Parsons to demand a policy rethink from Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.

He said: "We have to safeguard wildlife but we need a change in the law. This is a lot of money – the public will take it badly."

The council had to suspend work on the bypass for the village of Earl Shilton after evidence of the 6in newts was found during surveys last summer.

A 1,000-yard exclusion zone was set up around the ponds while further tests were done.

Experts later confirmed there were probably no more than ten newts and perhaps as few as one.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds still had to be spent on newt-proof fences and traps to help move the newts – or newt – when hibernation ended in the spring.

But council engineer Derek Needham said yesterday: "We have caught normal newts but no great crested newts."

Officials could have faced a massive fine or jail if they had not protected Slippery customer: A male great crested newt the "colony".