The director of a north-east construction firm has admitted he gave the go-ahead to work that flattened active badger setts at a housing development in Aberdeen.
Bruce Allan, director of Malcolm Allan Housebuilders, accepted responsibility in court for allowing an access route to be built on top of the setts where up to 30 badgers lived in Milltimber.
Allan’s firm had been warned by a resident that the protected species was present at the Contlaw Road site, but had received a “brusque reply basically telling him to mind his own business”.
Despite the setts being destroyed or severely damaged, no evidence was found that badgers had been killed by the firm’s actions, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Mr Allan’s solicitor, Gail Goodfellow, told the court that her client was aware of the badger setts but had misunderstood their location and “relied heavily” on the information his team provided to him.
Fiscal depute Karon Rollo told the court that following the sale of the Contlaw Road site to Malcolm Allan Housebuilders a Badger Protection Plan was included.
The protection plan stated that a 30-metre exclusion zone had been created to protect the badger setts from all construction works.
Ms Rollo said local residents made repeated calls to the firm in the days before the land was levelled to voice concerns about setts being near where work was beginning.
In response, one man received “a brusque reply basically telling him to mind his own business”, the depute fiscal said.
“On June 26 2020 the accused instructed a digger driver to dig and clear land at the locus to construct a road,” Ms Rollo continued.
“The accused failed to advise the digger driver of the Badger Protection Plan in place and the required precautions to follow.”
Ms Roll said that another resident managed to halt the dig by informing the digger driver that there were badgers present in the area.
Allan met the woman at the site that day and was shown the sites of the badger setts but she stated he “wasn’t unduly concerned”, the court was told.
The woman returned the following day to find the site had been bulldozed and the land flattened.
Various members of the public then contacted the police before an Envirocentre ecologist and representative of the charity Scottish Badgers confirmed the setts had been destroyed.
Eddie Palmer of the charity formed the opinion that “unless the badgers had escaped the sett as construction work started they would have been crushed underground”.
However, the ecologist concluded that, although he cannot be certain, he did not find any evidence that badgers had been killed during the incident.
Bruce Allan, 57, pleaded guilty to allowing workers to dig, level and clear land that contained badger setts on June 26 2020 whilst acting in his capacity as director of Malcolm Allan Housebuilders.
‘A lot of upset and outrage to the local community’
Defence agent Gail Goodfellow that both Allan and the company wished to make clear that they “accepted full responsibility” for the incident “which is a matter of regret”.
“It would appear that when Mr Allan allowed that access route it was his understanding that it would not impact the badger setts – regrettably he was wrong about that.
“This came about with having to reroute that access route and a mix-up in communication.
“It was understood that it would not pose any environmental difficulties, but he clearly didn’t recall the exact details of the plan and relied on what he had been told.
“His actions have caused a lot of upset and outrage to the local community and for that, he wishes to apologise.”
Sheriff Lesley Johnston deferred sentence on Allan, of Castle Farm, Kintore, until next week.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
