Evicted badgers find their way back home

Badgers that had been evicted from their sett two months ago after burrowing beneath a road have managed to find their way back to it. Despite having being drugged, caught and rehomed in another area, the badgers had returned yesterday to their network of tunnels stretching under a road and footpath in Cumnor Hill, west Oxford.

The animals were evicted in October after Oxfordshire county council obtained a licence to remove the protected species. The relocation took place after it was discovered that a section of the footpath and carriageway had been undermined when the badgers extended their network of tunnels.

Oxfordshire Highways, the county council department responsible for the work, applied for a licence from Natural England to close the sett throughout September and October. But, now the animals have reoccupied the land around their original home, Natural England have revoked the licence to protect the animals and their cubs.



Dr Philip Hawtin, chairman of Cumnor Parish Council, said: “This is definitely a case of badgers one — engineers nil. The work does need to be done, the county council weren’t exaggerating that, but you have to have a sense of humour about these things. And it would seem in this case, the badgers have outwitted us. Plain and simple.”

Julia Hammett, chairman of the Oxfordshire Badger Group, has met Oxfordshire Highways officers to discuss the issue. She said: “The sett is around 60 to 80 years old, older than the houses in the area. It isn’t surprising they have returned. This is nature’s way of saying we’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Jenny Shepherd, a district councillor for North Hinksey, said: “It is rather funny and something of a victory for the badgers. I can just imagine them with their sticks and little spotted handkerchief bundles, moving back in.”