A coastal flood defence bund is to be built on the site of a badger sett in Shoeburyness, Essex by the local borough council. Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 it is an offence to interfere with or disturb an occupied sett, so Thomson Habitats were asked to close the sett prior to the works commencing.
This involved installing 50 one-way badger gates which we surrounded with netting pinned to the ground with posts to prevent the badgers burrowing back in. The gates will be removed after we have ensured that all the badgers have vacated it.
To compensate for this loss of habitat, we constructed an artificial sett on land very close by. The sett consisted of 8 nesting chambers connected by a network of pipes, which once completed, were buried to a depth of at least 1250mm. The tunnels were sloped to prevent water logging and included “soakaways”. The entrances were positioned at different levels to encourage fresh air-flow throughout the sett.
Once the sett was completed, the entrances were baited, and only a week later, we received photographic evidence that the sett was being occupied!
