Council in flood-hit area under fire for £50,000 snake spending

Paul Whitehouse

A COUNCIL has faced criticism for spending 50,000 on a special fence to protect a colony of grass snakes in South Yorkshire.

The work is necessary to protect the wildlife at Ulley reservoir in Rotherham, where a new spillway is being constructed as part of reconstruction work following the floods of summer 2007.

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Experts feared the dam would give way under the weight of water following the deluge and it is being rebuilt under a multi-million pound scheme.

That includes the fence to stop grass snakes, which inhabit the surrounding wildlife sanctuary, from falling into the new spillway, but the expense has provoked criticism.

A local assembly meeting of Rotherham Council was told by one resident the money would have been better spent on helping those left homeless by the floods.

But assembly chairman Coun John Swift said the money had been specifically earmarked for wildlife protection, so could not be spent on anything else. He added: “The snakes had to be protected as part of the ecological aspect of the restoration project.

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“The snake fence had to be developed to prevent the snakes getting to the new overflow spillway at the reservoir and it is to protect them.

“We could not have spent the money on anything else so it is wrong to criticise this aspect of the reservoir restoration because we had to take action to protect wildlife in the surrounding area.”

During the floods engineering experts warned that the dam was in danger of giving way, which would have seen the M1 awash with water, and an emergency pumping operation was started to remove as much water as possible.

Since then it has been drained to allow rebuilding work on the retaining wall.