A worried councillor today urged English Nature to "give badgers a fair chance".

Deputy Castle Point Council leader Dave Blackwell is calling for the conservation group to visit the borough to supervise work carried out each time it issues a licence to remove a sett.

Mr Blackwell, chairman of the council's wildlife group, spoke out after another sett was removed in the area.

This brings the total to three setts destroyed in the last four months.

A consultant acting on behalf of Virgin Active carried out work to demolish three holes on a site earmarked for the leisure centre in Rayleigh Road, Thundersley, last November.

This was followed by a sett being destroyed in Vicarage Hill, Benfleet, and more recently by a number of badgers being moved from their sett to a new artificial one on Canvey.

Mr Blackwell said: "I am very annoyed. These consultants can get a licence to destroy badger setts without anyone from English Nature over-seeing their work.

"It seems a nonsense to me. Badger setts are being destroyed willy-nilly by these consultants. I would urge English Nature to give the badgers a fair chance."

Mr Blackwell said he intended to bring the matter before the council in a bid to try to protect some of the borough's badgers.

He has also written to Castle Point MP Christine Butler to express his concerns.

He added: "It is very worrying but if English Nature is dishing out the licences there is nothing we can do."

Jenny Bowen, conservation officer for English Nature, stressed the organisation was eager to work with Castle Point Council.

She said: "We are keen to work with the council, particularly in the early stages before they decide whether to grant planning permission. We try not to give licences before that has been decided but if planning permission is given, the decision is almost made about the fate of the badgers.

"We would like to be able to come down and see the badger setts but we are a bit under-staffed to do that."

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