Snails that held up a bypass have died out
A snail species which almost stopped the A34 Newbury bypass being built has died out in the area, according to a wildlife group.
Buglife said no Desmoulin’s whorl snails were left on the site they were moved to before the construction of the road.
Matt Shardlow, director of Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, told BBC News: “What happened was that the pipes that fed the water the snails needed on the translocation site became silted up; hence, the fen dried out and this is when the snails got into trouble and became extinct.
“The site could sustain the snails but it is a high-maintenance location. It is high maintenance because it is artificially created and unless you keep it going then troubles begin.”
A spokesman for the Highways Agency, which maintains the site, said he completely “refuted” the suggestion of mismanagement.
He said: “We have put a lot of time and resources into the site ever since the snails were moved.
“We still go out and monitor that site continuously.”
Mr Shardlow said: “We are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis. The loss of Desmoulin’s whorl snail on its translocation site is a timely reminder of the fragility of the wildlife around us.