Plan B Forum

They say the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. But in this case, at least the mice will be happy with the outcome.

A cash-strapped council has been criticised for spending £190,000 on a bridge - to allow dormice to cross the road safely.



Bosses at Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council in South Wales decided to erect three wire walkways above a new bypass to protect the rodent population.

They believe the interconnecting passages, which are suspended from 20ft wooden poles, will keep mice away from traffic when the full £90million Church Village bypass between Pontypridd and Talbot Green opens next month.

But critics have said the cost of the project is 'obscene' and have accused the council of getting its priorities wrong.

Fiona McEvoy, from the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'They may have good intentions but this bill is unjustifiably large and in these straitened times they should have explored less expensive ways of protecting these creatures.'

Nichola Thomas, 34, who lives near the bypass route in Llantrisant, said: 'There are more pressing issues that the council could be spending money on.

'I find it absurd that they have spent such an obscene amount of cash on this.'

But Byron Bowden, 27, who lives in the same village, said: 'Everybody talks about being greener, but when we finally are, people moan.'
A spokesman for Rhondda Cynon Taf Council also defended the decision, saying: 'Three bridges have been erected for dormice to safely move from one area to the other, while new ponds have been dug for the relocation of newts and other amphibians.

'We put up the dormouse bridges, along with 60 dormouse boxes, to help get them from one side of the road to the other.'

They added that the idea for the bridge had come from an ecological survey which was carried out in order to gain planning permission.

The Church Village bypass was first proposed more than 20 years ago, but was only given planning consent in 2006.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0xZQrIBuE

Miles wrote:Why are they saving mice.

Dormouse scuppers Morrisons plan for Wadebridge

Graham Smith | 12:34 UK time, Saturday, 7 August 2010

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. This is the important principle which looks as if it's going to become a crucial factor in the "battle of the supermarkets" currently raging in Wadebridge, where Sainsbury's and Morrisons are racing to develop new sites to the north of the town and Tesco is seeking expansion to the south.

Morrisons wants to build on the existing Wadebridge Football Club ground. Part of the deal is a new football site outside and to the west of the town at Bodieve. The proposed new football site is due to come before planners on Thursday and is a "make-or-break" element of the supermarket project: no new football club, no Morrisons.

The 10.5-acre site at Bodieve is currently agricultural and - possibly - home to a handful of dormice. Dormice are now so rare that they are on the list of European Protected Species and it is against the law to disturb their habitat. No-one has seen any dormice on the site but that doesn't matter - they have been seen just over a mile away and so there is a risk that they might take offence at the construction of six football pitches, floodlighting, changing facilities and 70 car parking spaces.

And so, notwithstanding what planning officer Gavin Smith sees as the community benefit of a new sporting facility, which is supported by both Sport England and the Football Association, he is recommending a refusal of permission:

"In the absence of the opportunity for the planning authority to consider the impact on a protected species as a material consideration, I am of the opinion that permission
cannot be granted to this application."

Supporters of the proposed new football site are now desperately hoping that a dormouse survey, due to be completed by November, will prove that no dormouse will be harmed by the project.

Meanwhile planners are soon to consider the Sainsbury's application, just yards from the existing Wadebridge Football Club (where Morrisons wants to go), at Higher Trenant. The proposed Sainsbury's site is on land owned by Cornwall Council.

Those councillors who are keen to sell to Sainsbury's, and cash in on a surplus asset in order to benefit Cornwall's council taxpayers, might now discover a new interest in nature conservation in general and the protection of dormice in particular.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/grahamsmith/ ... ml?page=10

National emblem? The pasty!!

SisterMaryFellatio wrote:Mice stop supermarkets!!! More power to the mice......


STILL DIDN'T BUILD A FRIGGIN BRIDGE!!

Developers behind the planned dredging of Falmouth harbour say that it will not harm a protected algae.

Falmouth Harbour Commissioners (FHC) and A&P Falmouth want to deepen the harbour for bigger vessels.

But the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) halted dredging, saying it could harm maerl beds which act as a nursery for commercial fish stocks.

Maerl is a calcified seaweed which only exists in a few coastal areas and can take thousands of years to form.



Dave Ellis, chairman of FHC, said: "We are going to touch less than 2% of the maerl.

"It will be lifted and relaid at the end of the dredge so there will be no reduction in maerl."

FHC says the new business in the harbour after dredging will create 800 jobs.

The MMO said in a statement: "We've invited the developers to come back with new proposals that address the environmental issues.

"We want to ensure the protection of the ancient and rare maerl beds - considered a non-renewable resource that cannot be lost."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13176159

Reality Bytes wrote:I dont think Dormice scurry anywhere to be honest they climb like squirrels so presumably they'd just see the bridge like a tree branch? Dunno logically I'd have thought they'd have only gone on the ground and onto the road because there were no branches there to use, the bridge is a more "natural" alternative maybe?