Boris Johnson vows to create ‘Newtopia’ for amphibians threatening his swimming pool plans
Boris Johnson has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to guard newts which have threatened his plans to construct an outside swimming pool at his Oxfordshire nation manor.
The former prime minister promised to construct a “Newtopia”, consisting of “newt motels”, for the amphibians who’ve taken residence on the Grade II-listed Brightwell Manor he shares along with his spouse Carrie and their three younger youngsters.
Mr Johnson – who sarcastically as soon as blamed “newt counting” for holding up “the productivity and the prosperity of this country” – utilized to put in the 11-metre by four-metre outside characteristic at his manor in June.
But the process may be delayed after the native countryside officer warned of the danger to nice crested newts – which thrive within the village and are protected beneath the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
In his newest Daily Mail column, Mr Johnson wrote: “If it seems that our backyard is so honoured and so lucky as to be the house of some newts – nice crested, palmate, no matter – I need you to know that I’ll do no matter it takes to guard them.
“If we have to build little newt motels to house them in their trips past the swimming pool, then we will. If we have to create whole newt-friendly bunds to stop them falling in, we will.
“We will excavate new ponds wherein they will breed. We will make a Newtopia!”
Johnson’s proposed pool in ‘highest threat’ space
The South and Vale countryside officer final month filed a holding objection to Mr Johnson’s deliberate pool, arguing that the newts could possibly be “impacted by the proposed development”.
In his report, which acknowledged that planning permission shouldn’t “currently” be granted, native authorities ecologist Edward Church wrote: “There are known populations of great crested newts… in the east of the village.
“Mapping reveals that there’s a pond onsite and a moat instantly adjoining to the southern boundary, each properly inside 250 metres of the place of the proposed pool.
“The proposed development falls within the red zone of highest risk to GCN [great crested newts].”
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Mr Johnson mentioned that in accordance with one of many ecology stories he has obtained – which he described as “amazingly expensive but worth every penny” – “there are certainly bodies of water nearby that could be hospitable to newts”.
“There is a chance that these creatures could be interrupted in their peregrinations, when they leave their watery lairs, by an unexpected new hole in the lawn,” he mentioned.
“I am told that something that could be the spoor of the newt has been found, but we await DNA testing from the lab – and so, inevitably, I am warned that there may be delays, and there may be costs.”
The Wildlife Trust says the nice crested newt, which is protected beneath UK and European wildlife legislation, is the most important of the UK’s newt species, measuring as much as 17cm.
The so-called “warty newt” is nearly black with noticed flanks and an orange stomach, with the charity evaluating it to a mini-dinosaur.
Newt numbers are in decline, with habitat loss cited as their greatest menace.