The Great Crested Newt is a protected species known to inhabit the area, particularly at the breeding site, Popley Ponds, to the south of the Popley Fields site.
The Great Crested Newt is a creature that is dependent on both aquatic and terrestrial habitats, utilising aquatic habitats to breed. Their range of movement is often up to 500m from the local breeding site. Surveys have been undertaken to determine the newt population in order to establish appropriate migration mitigation measures to enhance the newt habitat, providing safe migration routes and improving and retaining sufficient habitat.
The newt mitigation strategy and management plan for Popley Fields sought to avoid the loss of newts during construction and to safeguard their well-being once the development was finished. It has been achieved through both the creation of safe dispersal routes through the site and the retention of sufficient terrestrial habitat. The breeding pond at Popley Fields lies beyond the development site but has been retained and enhanced, under the management of the Borough Council.
Terrestrial habitat
Hedgerows, which provide the best habitat within the site, have been retained wherever possible. Along the northern margin of the SINC, a 40m long buffer zone, designed to provide rough grassland/scrub habitat has been constructed. This buffer, along with a dense hedge, also serves to limit access to the northern side of the SINC, thereby protecting the habitat and restricting public use of the area.
The existing hedgerow has been retained along the eastern boundary of the site where possible to enable the newts to travel to and from the ponds. A newt mitigation corridor has been provided on the eastern side of the development, including the provision of landscaped corridors providing a safe migration route for the Great Crested Newts narrowed down to 20 metres at the entrances to the site, to enable the newts to take advantage of special underpasses built beneath the access roads.
Construction of Newt Corridor
The Protected Species Management Plan (Great Crested Newts), 1.2.3 Integration with roads and other hard landscapes, can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
The mitigation corridors include both shallow and deeper areas, which provide a variety of damp and permanently wet habitats. New planting includes native rough grassland, wild flowers and other flora suited to damp and marshy conditions and all are of local provenance. Spoil from the mitigation corridor has been used to form suitable hibernation sites for the newts. These have been constructed in accordance with English Nature’s mitigation guidelines to provide shelter and refuge for newts.
English Nature’s Mitigation Guidelines (external PDF)
This links through the central area of public open space (area OS-4 in the link below) and links to the western end of the SINC. However, the whole of area OS-4 is being managed to provide a suitable terrestrial newt habitat. Public use of this area is encouraged within clearly defined boundaries, thus reducing the potential disturbance but enabling the proposals to integrate with the new development as shown in the master plan for the site.
Aquatic
In addition to the newt corridors, two additional ponds have been created specifically for the purpose of encouraging/enhancing the newt population and diversity. These ponds are to the north of phase IV and are built with shallow and deep areas for the newts. New submerged planting has been introduced, although local plant species have been allowed to evolve naturally.
Additionally, two balancing ponds have been established along the northern boundary of the site. These provide a further habitat for all amphibians, incorporating similar features as the described above.
Protection of Great Crested Newts
As a European level protected species, the injury or killing of newts during construction is to be avoided at all costs. To achieve this, each future phase of the development has been safeguarded and the interior compartmentalised to enable any newts within the area to be captured and be released into a suitable habitat outside the site and with safeguarded areas.
The translocation of newts during the construction of the housing areas can only occur during the active season for newts (February to October) although this is subject to seasonal variation. This work must be undertaken prior to commencement of site activities.
To avoid injury or killing of newts during construction, each phased area of the development was enclosed with newt-proof fencing, the interior was compartmentalised with further fencing and any newts within the area were caught utilising pitfall traps at the base of the fencing. Any newts trapped were then released outside of the fence in protected suitable habitat within the proposed development site. The best time for this work is during the migration period.
The capture, exclusion and translocation of newts was undertaken by licensed great crested newt specialists
