New homes for creatures great and small

Creatures great and small: we have been working closely with ecologists from The Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) to help protect a colony of great crested newts, at our new Connah’s Quay development in Deeside, Clywd.

Before work began at Connah’s Quay, a study was carried out at a local wildlife habitat within the development, which revealed that moderate to high numbers of newts were present.

The area is well known throughout the local community and has been earmarked as a nature conservation area, so we wanted to ensure it remained an undisturbed area of interest for local residents. The newts are protected under European Law, so before work could begin, we had to make sure they were adequately protected and had a suitable new habitat which could ensure their long-term survival.

Matthew Ellis, of CCW, said “The Connah’s Quay project has been both interesting and challenging. The new habitat should provide a more secure future for the newts on a formerly agricultural site. Monitoring of schemes like this to date have shown no detrimental effect on the great crested newt population demonstrating that ecological mitigation can be successfully integrated within local developments, given the right circumstances.”

“This is a great example of how wildlife can be protected alongside development. The monitoring at Connah’s Quay is really encouraging – the great crested newts seem to be thriving in the newly created habitats.”