New homes found for slow worms living on development site

One thousand former residents are making themselves at home in their new surroundings after being rehoused.

We’ve been working with our ecologists at The Landmark Practice to capture slow worms living on two of our development sites in Little Stoke and Filton. Over the course of several months hundreds of the legless lizards have been safely collected from the sites and rehoused at Three Brooks Lake nature reserve in Bradley Stoke and the Bristol Golf Club in Almondsbury.

Development Manager Ellen Copeland said: “Before starting work on any new development we work with ecologists to minimise the disruption to local wildlife, especially to protected species such as bats, great crested newts and slow worms.

“But it’s been a real surprise to see just how many of them were living on these two sites; even our ecologists have been shocked at how many they’ve found.”

All of the slow worms have been removed from the Collins Road site in Little Stoke and our contractors United Living will soon start demolishing the existing properties. The 15 new homes are due to be completed next autumn. But we're still collecting the reptiles from Rodney Crescent in Filton. Our planning application to build 17 affordable homes on this site is currently being considered by South Gloucestershire Council.