Picture: David KjaerCHILDREN in Taw Hill are being made to wait for a play area because a protected species of newt is holding up building work.

Builder Trench Farrow has been forced to stop progress on the site off Queen Elizabeth Drive due to a population of great crested newts.

The newts are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Habitat Regulations Act of 1994.

It means it is illegal to catch, possess or handle them without a licence and it is also illegal to cause them harm, or to disturb their habitat in any way.

David Trease, the site manager for Trench Farrow, said: "We're waiting for a licence to do the next stage of work. It's illegal to do anything until we have that.

"Obviously we have to work where they are but we have to move them out to allow us to do the work.

"Part of the area is complete but it's the actual play equipment that is waiting to go in.

"It's taking a lot longer then we thought, working around the newts.

"We expected to be able to do it in one phase but unfortunately we realised the newt reservation was actually in part of the area to designated for the equipment.

"We're hoping it will be open to the children by the end of the summer."

Work began on the site three years ago. It is being paid for by a consortium of builders called the Haydon Development Company.

Angela Reid, 39, who is the chairwoman of the Taw Hill Tots group and has two children, Katie, three, and Luke, one, said parents in the area were getting fed up of waiting.

She said: "Everybody keeps asking why it's not finished. It's unsightly at the moment because it's not finished and there's lots of metal everywhere.

"And it's an inconvenience because every time we walk past my daughter keeps asking why she can't play on it and I keep having to explain to her that the man hasn't finished it yet.

"Quite a few children will use it when it's finished because it's right by St Francis Primary School.

"I know it's because of the newts but people are wondering what's wrong with it."

Newt news

Although a rare species, the great crested newt has made a number of appearances in Swindon and caused complications for a number of developments in the town

In July last year proposals for a new football stadium at River Ray Parkway ran into trouble with news that the site was home to the great crested newt

The newts, which are on the decline as their habitat disappears, have also been at the centre of building debates at the Front Garden and the former St Ivel factory in Wootton Bassett

In December 2003 Wiltshire Wildlife Trust had to clear a stagnant pond in Stratton to save a number of the creatures.

They would have suffocated at the neglected pond, in the Church Park Conservation Area, had the water not been cleared of rubbish

Great crested newts are Britain's biggest newt and they can grow to 17cms.