It seems the greens have got us worried about everything and as usual there is a huge cost involved. Its getting so bad that I'm scared of the weather! If it rains more than 3 days we might flood. if it's sunny there could be a drought. if it's warm its climate change and the same if its too cold. The enviromentalists should be ashamed at the incredible waste of money and energy they instigate under the banner of saving the planet. As far as I am concerned they are doing more direct and indirect damage than any other section of humanity.

A.Golding, Maidstone, england

If we allow a small population of an endangered animals to be killed what's to stop developers ploughing into every scrap of ancient woodland? It is an EU law to protect our most at risk species and habitats and without them our children will have no idea what a newt ever was or what habitats it lived in as all be lost to small developments killing only a few animals and taking up only a small green space.

Mitigation for such protected species is high profile and involves much more than moving a few newts. Scandalising such stories does nothing to help nature conservation or find solutions to problems.

Rebeca , Manchester,

Newt, What Newt? <SQUISH> OOOOOPS...Proceed as planned

MIke, RI, US

I daresay Red Ken would approve.

Garley, London, England

I used to have a pet newt.
It was minute.
It was my newt.
I called it Tiny

martin brighton, sheffield,

Last time I was in Great Britain some lady turned me into a newt. I got better, though

Xiao Mei, Washington DC, United States/DC

Newts are a minority group. You can't do enough to help a newt. What about their education?

Rich, San Angelo, USA

No wonder we don't produce anything productive in this country any more as every building project is at risk of being stung by a ridiculous situation like this. The taxpayer is willing to bare the risk but the investor is likely to run a thousands of miles to china or India to escape this sort of madness. The same sort of issue will effect housing development in the country, if Gordon Brown wants more houses then he's going have to scrap crazy laws like this.

Bruce Mcaaw, Grantham,

£5 to a kid with a fishing net and a jam jar.... an hour of a copper's time telling the kid he's a "very naughty boy to be catching those protected newts, now go and pop them in that ditch over the road"....problem solved! Minimal paperwork, minimal cost, everybody wins. It doesnt cost £60k to set a few traps and visit them daily for a month, if it does I'll quit my nursing post here in Oz and return to the UK to become a newt -catcher.

Tom, Perth, Australia

What's wrong with a net on a cane and a jam jar like we used to do back when the world was sane and the EU had just been liberated from tyranny?

Lloyd, Auchenblae,

Great crested newts are common and not endangered in here so this European legislation is inappropriate and causes extra costs. This is protectionism gone mad. The costs are real and ultimately paid by all of us who pay national and local govenment taxes. Wild life needs to be protected but not 'at any cost' for a commonly found creature. Equally, our endangered flora and fauna have a far more worthwhile claim on very scarce funds. £60,000 could do some real good there.

MH, Kenilworth, Warwickshire

i would have gven them a home for £60 !!

Rich Sperrin, Bristol, UK

Possible diversification project for farmers - breeding great crested newts for Nimbys to put in their ponds?

Alan Spedding, Buckingham,

Sometimes I wonder whether we have things the wrong way around; for instance, surely a decent education for our future children is more important than four newts. Therefore, the developers, should have soome insurance scheme so as to pay these costs.

Society will only survive if we are educated, and commerce and capitalism could (and should) cover these unexpected costs...

Nigel, London,

Did the newts employ their family members to do the work?

Peter Knight, Bristol,

I agree with Alli, before 'going off on one', it's important to balance the facts. Since this was a public building, I suspect some of the costs were incurred by having to build the new habitat, hiring the fencing, hiring the traps and employing the specialists, but £60,000 does seem high.

Ron, Milton Keynes, Bucks

Rather 60K went on the newts than to politicians.

Name Witheld, Manchester,

So the council believes the life of a protected amphibian is not important enough to pay for it's safe re-homing?

Councils have to understand the importance of indigenous species habitats and must abide by the rules of protection however much it costs.

If they don't like the cost, they should consider looking for another site for their projects. Preferable in my opinion.

If there is no alternative then the contractors involved should waive their fees as a gesture of charity towards our native fauna

Paul, Southampton,

They're saying they couldn't find four newts a new home for less than £60,000? Has the housing boom had a knock-on effect on Britain's ponds?

I would be interested to see a breakdown of how this money was spent. At the risk of speculating wildly, I imagine more of it's gone on unneccessary bureaucracy than actually rehoming the newts.

Alli, Stockton-on-Tees, England