£24,000 bill to move 55 water voles before Somerset Levels dredging
THE bill to help prevent flooding on the Somerset Levels went up by £24,000 - because of the presence of water voles.
That's how much it cost to move 55 of the protected creatures before dredging on the rivers Tone and Parrett.
The Environment Agency said relocating the voles to Cornwall and Hampshire landed them with the bill, which works out at around £436 per animal.
The voles had been trapped along a five-mile stretch of the two rivers as part of a £86,000 wildlife survey.
An EA spokesman said: "Relocating them was an essential piece of work - if we hadn't moved this population of voles, then it wouldn't have been possible to complete the dredging."
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