CAMPAIGNERS have not managed to save a badger sett from being destroyed, but they have prevented a developer from moving in.

More than 1,800 people from around the world signed a petition earlier this year to try to protect badgers living off Webbs Way in Kidlington.

Pye Homes director Graham Flint was granted permission to build a family home for himself there, as long as he was given a licence to move on the previous occupiers – a colony of badgers.

Despite the petition, which campaigners presented to Pye Homes in May, Natural England granted Mr Flint the licence.

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However, instead of using the land for his family home, he is now in the process of selling it to another developer.

Mr Flint said: “I’m no longer going to live there because of the onslaught from the neighbours.

“The licence is a hollow victory.

“I’m pleased we can draw a line under it and move on, but I certainly didn’t want to be upsetting the neighbours.”

Mr Flint has built an artificial sett nearby, which the badgers are slowly moving into.

One-way gates mean that once the badgers leave their natural sett, they cannot get back in and are forced to live elsewhere.

Webbs Way resident Linda Ward set up the petition to try to keep the badgers where they were.

She said: “The badgers are really active in the area, people report seeing as many as nine at a time.

“It’s all very sad. We have made personal appeals but not got anywhere.

“They think because it’s legal they are going to press on and do it, but that doesn’t make it right.

“It’s an unnecessary and ugly thing to do.”

Despite the badgers having to move, the 60-year-old said the campaign had been a partial success.

She added: “We have raised awareness of the badger’s plight and the threat posed by development, but at the end of the day, the planning laws are biased in favour of development.”

Cherwell District Council granted planning permission for a five-bedroom family home at the site last November, on the condition Natural England allowed removal of the badgers.

Natural England spokesman Lyndon Marquis said: “Although badgers are a protected species, action to close badger setts can be taken, as long as the welfare of the badgers is not compromised.

“We are satisfied that all licensing criteria has been met by the developers and closure of the existing sett can therefore commence, using one-way gates.”

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