| Date -19 Jan 2007 | Return to previous page |
Moray Council has successfully completed a major re-housing project for a local family - of badgers.
For the past few years the animals had been developing their large sett under the tarmac surface of the B9018 road between Keith and Cullen, and the tunnel network caused sections of the road to sink.
Badgers are protected under the under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, and a licence was required from the Scottish Executive (Environment and Rural Affairs Department) allowing us to carry out emergency repairs in close proximity to a live sett.
In the summer of 2006 there was a significant increase in badger excavations in the same area.
The road surface was found to be again sinking in numerous locations over a 350 metre stretch of road.
To maintain the safety of road users it became necessary to erect temporary road surface signs, impose a temporary 30mph speed limit and eventually install traffic lights.
It was clear a permanent solution would be needed, and a badger expert was called in to help find one.
Mike Harris, of Grampian Badgers Surveys at Strichen, Aberdeenshire, provided expert advice in how to deal with the situation in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Consultations were necessary with Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Executive.
The existing setts had to be demolished to allow the road repair to be carried out and once again a licence would be required from SEERAD.
But, after detailed surveys Mike was able to confirm that this was one of the main active setts in the area, and demolition alone would not be acceptable.
One of the licence conditions would be that before any road repairs could commence an alternative home nearby would have to be provided for the badgers.
With co-operation from the local landowner a location for a new artificial sett was established by Moray Council.
The new badger estate involved building the artificial sett from 300mm diameter clay pipes leading to a number of block built chambers with plywood and slabbed roofs over two storeys. The setts were furnished with straw bedding and made waterproof.
On completion exclusion fences were erected around the existing sett with a series of gates which would first allow the badgers to come and go freely to explore their new homes.
After a period of time the gates were set to one-way, allowing the badgers to leave their existing home but not go back.
Only after confirming satisfactory exclusion could the existing sett be demolished and the road reconstructed.
Mesh netting was placed along the length of the embankment to stop the badgers going back to their old homes in the future.
The total cost of the project exceeded £80,000 and other planned road repairs in the Moray area had to be re-programmed to accommodate these emergency works.
The demolition of the existing sett took longer than anticipated, as the network of tunnels and chambers proved far more extensive than first envisaged.
A large quantity of rock had to be imported to the site to fill the voids and strengthen the embankment. Finally the road surface was reinstated and the road reopened last month.
A council spokesman said: "This was potentially a tricky situation; we had to make sure the animals were successfully excluded first time, otherwise they would have scattered elsewhere or started digging up the road again.
"We were fortunate to have the skills in-house to build the new setts, and to have expert Mike Harris on hand to give us the advice we needed.
"It may seem a lot of fuss over badgers, but they are protected by law and as an authority we will abide by the law.
"It is a successful, permanent solution borne from proper planning, and our roads team are to be congratulated."