Dormice discovery pauses motorway improvements

Work to improve drainage on a motorway has been paused and will take several more months to finish, after dormice were found on site.

National Highways began work on the M5 in Somerset in October last year, to alleviate flooding on the verges and carriageway near junction 26 for Wellington.

It involves the de-silting of ditches, replacing blocked drainage pipes and resurfacing and was due to finish by the end of February, but is now expected to go on until the end of April.

Lila Morris, Mendip nature recovery officer at Somerset Wildlife Trust, said she understood the frustration for motorists, "but unfortunately, it's just very necessary".

The work on the motorway has been described as "essential" by National Highways, with route manager Jonathan Hill saying when it started that they hoped to keep disruption to a minimum.

"We've been forced to pause the drainage scheme after dormice were found on site," he now says.

"We're currently awaiting a licence from Natural England before resolving the environmental issue and resuming the scheme to completion, and in the meantime all traffic management will remain in place."

Morris said: "Hazel dormice are a legally protected species under UK and European law, which means that it's illegal to deliberately or recklessly kill, injure, or capture them, or damage or destroy their habitat.

"No doubt this will be very frustrating for M5 commuters. I understand this entirely. But unfortunately, it's just very necessary, to try to stem the worrying declines in our struggling wildlife populations."

According to Morris, numbers of dormice in the UK have dropped by 70% in some places in the past 25 years.

She said the population decline was "unsustainable", adding: "They are really suffering from habitat loss and fragmentation in particular, as they are largely arboreal which means they don't really like to come down to the ground."

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