Urgent –please help to try and stop the Badger Sett at Webbs Way, Kidlington, Oxfordshire from being closed during the animals breeding season! Over 1,500 people signed this petition to try and save this important sett from being closed just to build a single house over the site. We are again asking for public support to try and make Pye Homes Ltd play fair and follow the rules. Natural England eventually granted a licence allowing sett interference work to close the badger sett between 1st October and 30th November. We accepted the situation but thought our campaign had at least succeeded in making sure the work would be done properly, according to the strict terms of the exclusion licence. Two months was never likely to be long enough to move a thriving badger colony which has been established for decades. Pye had to close a massive sett covering almost all of the building plot. Pye failed to prove that all the badgers had left the sett 21 clear days before the deadline. They should have packed up and left the badgers alone. Yet the wire fences and electrified on-way exclusion gates remain in place after the 30th November deadline. All Natural England will say to us is: Our wildlife adviser has held discussions with the Ecologist who is managing the security of the badgers and safe sett clearance / closure. In exceptional circumstances a licence may be extended. Natural England does not wish to see a contravention of the licence condition nor breach of the law. We don’t know if the license has or has not been extended, but time is certainly running out before the bulldozers arrive. The local wildlife police seem to think NE have approved the work and are not investigating. Would you take a moment to email Natural England and ask them to explain why they have not enforced the licence period ? There are no exceptional circumstances to justify an extension in this case. The badger close season is usually sacrosanct for good reason. Our badgers had already started to gather nest material at the end of September. Stopping work at the end of November gives the badgers being forced from their sett – and importantly the pregnant females – at least 3 weeks to find a new home for the winter. Allowing an extension could set a dangerous precedent that might allow developers to erode the close season just for ‘convenience’. If you can, please take a moment to email the wildlife management and licensing team at enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk as soon as possible. Perhaps they will rethink their policy if enough people show concern about this case. You might like to tell Graham Flint, Managing Director of Pye Homes what you think of his company’s record on environmental issues: gflint@pyehomes.co.uk And the badgers would love to hear from you. I don’t know where they are right now but we so hope they are keeping safe. webbswaybadgers@gmail.com Thanks for reading this, appreciate your time. Linda Ward.