Council declares badger emergency

Lincolnshire County Council has obtained a ‘last-minute’ licence from Natural England for emergency works to stop a road falling apart after it was damaged by badgers.

The highway authority said the subterranean mammals had dug under the structure of A52 Seaholme Road in Mablethorpe.

It wants to repair the damage before it gets worse but has had to wait for a licence from Natural England because badgers are a protected species.

However, 'time is now extremely short' the council said, because all works on badger setts have to be completed between July and the end of November due to the badger mating season, ‘and the length of time it has taken to be granted the licence’.

It added that if the work is not carried out in time, the entire section of road will have to be closed until next year.

A condition of the licence is that the works should be carried out under a road closure to ensure the safety of the badgers.

This has caused what the council called ‘a big traffic-flow issue’ for the Mablethorpe area, with surfacing works already taking place on the A1104 under a road closure.

Richard Davies, executive member for highways, said: ‘It is extremely frustrating that we have not been given this licence until now. We can’t pause the other scheme because it is at a critical stage of the work, and now we have to carry out these essential works to repair the damage that the badgers have caused.

‘Our hands are tied about scheduling these conflicting works. We have no option but to get this additional programme up and running straight away.’

The works on the A52 will begin on Saturday (8 November) and have a scheduled end date of Wednesday 20 November.