{"id":685299,"date":"2026-01-09T21:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685299\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T21:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:13:09","slug":"row-over-repairs-to-badger-damaged-east-halton-road-resolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685299\/","title":{"rendered":"Row over repairs to badger-damaged East Halton road resolved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Parts of College Road <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c8dr1pz4807o\" class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were closed in October<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Natural England previously said it issued the council with a licence on 13 October &#8220;to carry out this work ahead of the badger breeding season&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The council said it then built an &#8220;alternative badger sett to allow repairs to go ahead&#8221;, but the badgers returned to their original sett.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Badger setts are legally protected and it is a criminal offence to interfere with one without government approval.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Waltham said the lifting of restrictions would make &#8220;a real difference&#8221; for residents of East Halton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This has never been just about a stretch of road. It&#8217;s been about residents facing long detours, farmers trying to run their businesses, and a community feeling cut off. Being able to get spades in the ground again is a crucial turning point,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to the council, the existing road surface would be removed in February, with full reconstruction starting in the spring, meaning the road could reopen as early as May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The spokesperson for Natural England said the body had &#8220;provided the necessary licence on time&#8221;, each time the council had applied. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The licences enable the work to progress,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We fully understand the difficulties the villagers were experiencing and are pleased the issues have been resolved.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parts of College Road were closed in October. Natural England previously said it issued the council with a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-685299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115867209109678041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685299","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=685299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}