Vital engineering work taking place in Network Rail‘s Eastern region has been granted a special licence for the area.

The licence will allow them to safely relocate the Great Crested Newts found where the work will be taking place.

Specialists will be building a large scale habitat for the native newts to move to when the upgrades begin so that the species aren’t harmed or disrupted. This will not only prevent any engineering delays, but will also allow the species to thrive.

Natural England granted the licence following a previous trial on the Midland Main Line Upgrade. The licence now covers the entire Eastern region,incuding Newcastle, York, Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Peterborough and East Anglia.

The licence was required as these newts, which are usually found in grassland, ponds and woodland, are a protected native UK species. The licence allows the team to move them when necessary to prevent the loss of the species’ numbers and keep habitats for them in the future.

Hamish Critchell-Ward, Environmental Manager for Network Rail’s Eastern region, said: “This is a significant win for sustainability across the region. Our lineside habitats are a valuable asset that need management and protection in order to improve biodiversity and create an environmentally friendly railway that’s fit for future generations.

“This licence will help us strike the balance between helping lineside wildlife to thrive, whilst allowing essential railway upgrade work to get underway. It’s great that Natural England have been so supportive of this initiative, and we’re really looking forward to working with our partners at NatureSpace in an approach that’s more streamlined and results in more habitat creation.”

The project is being carried out in collaboration with NatureSpace – an organisation dedicated to working with conservationists, industry experts and developers to understand, grow and protect the great crested newt’s habitat.

Dr Tom Tew, NatureSpace CEO, said: “We are delighted to help Network Rail expand their Organisational Licence for great crested newts so that it covers the whole Eastern Region Network. The Licence provides a quick and simple option that both ensures newts are conserved and allows critical rail work to proceed without delay. It’s not generally known but the rail-side vegetation can provide really important terrestrial habitat for newts, and so it’s great to see major infrastructure providers embracing their environmental responsibilities and delivering conservation gain for our endangered species – we hope others will follow Network Rail’s example.”

Duncan Brown, Operations Manager for District-Level Licensing at Natural England, said: “The expansion of the Network Rail Organisational Licence removes the need for individual licence applications for routine works, and will fund habitat creation along a significant part of the rail network. The largest-scale licence of its type, this has been developed with Network Rail and NatureSpace to deliver habitats at the landscape scale and benefit this iconic species.”