Fears for toads if homes go ahead

A toad in Bobbits Lane, Ipswich, during this year's migration season. Picture by Duncan Sweeting.

Campaigners are calling for plans for a 200-home development to be scrapped amid fears the UK's biggest urban toad population could be devastated.

Ipswich Wildlife Group wants Kiln Meadow in the town, home to a common toad population, kept as green space.

Ipswich Borough Council has outline planning approval to build the homes on the site and is considering selling it to a developer.

Now councillors are due to consider the calls for a rethink.

Jen Jousiffe, a conservation volunteer fighting to save the land, said the future of the common toad population would be bleak if the homes were built.

"The population would be under threat because they migrate across Kiln Meadow, maybe even hibernate there. Their passage would be blocked.

"We think the population would most likely be wiped out."

We think the population would most likely be wiped out Jen Jousiffe, conservation volunteer

Ipswich Borough Council owns the 11-acre site in the neighbouring Babergh District Council area and was given the first stage of planning permission last year, five years after originally submitting the application.

The 200 homes would form the last stage of the Thorington Hall development which began in the 1990s close to the Belstead area of the town.

However fears about the impact of the development on wildlife in the area have increased following rapid growth in the toad population, which is now thought to be 5,000 strong.

Kiln Meadow is bounded on three sides by local nature reserves and the campaigners want it given similar status.

The toad population around Belstead Brook has grown to about 5,000. Picture by Duncan Sweeting

Earlier this year volunteers helping in the annual toad patrol carried 4,400 toads safely out of the path of traffic on a section of Bobbits Lane.

That led to the patrol topping a list of 720 toad crossings compiled by national charity Froglife this year and led to it being recognised as the UK's biggest known urban toad population.

Mrs Jousiffe said the appeal for a halt to the development was expected to be considered by councillors at a meeting on 3 November.

An Ipswich Borough Council spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the concerns that have been raised and are considering the matter."