Top DNA boffin backs family's legal campaign (From Brentwood Weekly News)

Top DNA boffin backs family's legal campaign

12:00pm Thursday 16th April 2009

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PROPERTY developers are tracking badgers on green belt land poised for development.

Barratt Developments have admitted they are using specialists to find out about the badgers living on a site they are interested in developing with Castle Point Council.

At first dog walker Paul Saunders, of Daws Heath Road, suspected poison when he found 14 sites of a dog-food like substances laced with red specs near badger sets in fields near Firfield close, Thundersley.

But, tests by a wildlife expert have revealed the specs were a plastic tracer substance used by ecologists to track the movements of badgers by checking their faeces.

Paul Cantwell, a wildlife management adviser for conservationists Natural England, said the substance was commonly used by property developers.

He said: “Badgers are a material consideration when applying for planning permission because they are a protected species.

“Developers often employ ecologists to track badger movements in a potential sites so they know how difficult it will be to obtain planning.”

The findings have left Mr Saunders, who is also a campaigner for Hands Off Our Green Belt, fearing property developers are determined to build on the fields.

Mr Saunders, of Daws Heath Road, and a member of the Hands Off Our Greenbelt campaign group, said: “The fact there is such a wide variety of wild life in the area just goes to show why it should not be used for houses.

“It is a relief it is not poison, but in some ways this is much worse.”

David Banfield, Strategic Land Director at Barratt Developments, said: “Preserving and enhancing the environmental sustainability of the Daws Heath Road site would be a central objective of any future development.

“We have asked an independent firm of ecological specialists to find out more about the badgers living there. They are currently doing this using widely accepted methods which, of course, do absolutely no harm whatsoever to the badgers.”

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