{"id":399881,"date":"2025-09-05T11:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399881\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:47:11","slug":"water-vole-habitat-in-gloucestershire-illegally-destroyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399881\/","title":{"rendered":"Water vole habitat in Gloucestershire ‘illegally’ destroyed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two companies who illegally destroyed a habitat for the UK’s fastest-declining mammal species have agreed to fund an ecological survey to “make amends”. <\/p>\n

The Environment Agency (EA) said it had received a report in March that ditch clearance work in Lechlade, Gloucestershire, had destroyed a water vole habitat.<\/p>\n

The agency said a criminal investigation found there had been “no ill intent”, although the companies had been given prior advice about laws protecting wildlife.<\/p>\n

Both companies, who are not named in the EA statement, agreed to fund a two-year water vole survey by ecologists at the Cotswold Lakes Trust charity, alongside a donation to support the charity’s nature recovery work.<\/p>\n

Due to the water voles being protected<\/a> under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Gloucestershire Police’s rural crime team attended the location near The Wern.<\/p>\n

Wildlife experts were able to show water voles had been in the area and confirmed they had left the area after the habitat was destroyed.<\/p>\n

The EA added that during the investigation it was identified both companies were unaware the ditch clearance work would harm the habitat, and had not benefitted financially.<\/p>\n

Richard Parker, Cotswolds rural, wildlife and heritage crime officer at Gloucestershire Police, said: “A community resolution was therefore the most appropriate and proportionate outcome.<\/p>\n

“It has provided an opportunity for the companies involved to better understand the impact their actions have caused and to make amends for the harm they have caused.<\/p>\n

“They are now funding a survey to support the bio-diversity in the local area and they have also agreed to ensure their employees are given training on sensitive bio-diverse locations in order to protect the natural environment and any species that may live there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two companies who illegally destroyed a habitat for the UK’s fastest-declining mammal species have agreed to fund an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-399881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115151532423185307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}