Nature fights back - newts make Climate Camp to stop Carlisle Bypass

A couple of weeks ago I made a disparaging comment about the Department for Transport, claiming that their environmental policy only extended so far as protecting newts. Following this, Plane Stupid has been in close contact with an up-for-it band of amphibians, who have been making plans to take the fight to the DfT and its roads-and-runways plans.

This week they struck, setting up a Camp for Climate Action on the site of the proposed Carlisle Bypass (located, oddly enough, near Carlisle). Under cover of night (they're nocturnal) the Great Crested newts crawled on their bellies onto the site and have been making little newty homes. Reports that sections 6 notices have gone up are as yet unconfirmed.

The state moved fast to disrupt the protest, installing fencing to keep the newts out, and laying traps for those newts already in tunnels or splashing about in ponds. They've hired newt-baliffs Herpetosure to remove the newts, who will be "taken to a safe area" where they can protest in peace. Given that great crested newts are endangered because their habitats are being destroyed, wouldn't it be nice if they were just left alone and the road scheme stopped?