Slow-worms put brake on Holiday Inn Express

PREMIER Hotels is threatening to abandon plans for a £2m, 85-bedroom Holiday Inn Express in Dorset after building work was held up by a colony of slow-worms.

Poole Council has forbidden the bulldozers to move on to the site until the slow-worms, along with some protected lizards and frogs, have been moved. Premier Hotels spokesman Jason Tate said this would mean work due to start this autumn would be delayed until next summer.

"We are getting to the point where we are not likely to go ahead. Part of it is economics. There is a downturn in the economy, and the funding arrangements we have won't stay in place forever," he warned.

During an environmental survey of the site in September, nine slow-worms were found and taken to nearby Canford Heath. Tate said: "I would be surprised if any more were left."

But Government body English Nature and the Bournemouth-based Herpetological Conservation Trust claimed that the developer's survey took place out of season and was incomplete. The organisations feared hundreds of animals would die unless further action was taken.

Poole planning committee chairman Jeff Allan said the council was being guided by English Nature, but added: "If this development falls through, we would be very, very disappointed. Poole needs this hotel."

English Nature pointed out that the developers could face prosecution from the local authority or some conservation body if they proceeded without counting the number of creatures on the site. While not endangered, the slow-worm is a protected species.

by Julie Magee