Morning:
12°c
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
Secret loans totalling £61.6 billion to struggling banks Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS revealed for the first time
More...
No cats please, we're from Surrey
Last updated at 22:37pm on 25.11.06
Threat: Cats are estimated to kill around 55 million birds every year in UK.
Britain could get its first ever 'cat exclusion zone' in a bid to protect endangered birds.
Under the plans to safeguard vulnerable nests, families buying homes in a 300 square mile swathe of the Home Counties would be forced to sign an agreement never to own a cat.
Imposing such a ban is the only way developers would be allowed to build 50,000 much needed homes near the birds' nesting grounds in the heaths of Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire.
The tracts of lowland area, collectively known as the Thames Basin Heaths, were declared a single 'special protection area' under an EU directive introduced last year.
The move - designed to protect the Dartford warbler, the nightjar and the woodlark - brought building plans to a halt, despite Government pledges for new housing in the area.
Following crisis talks between builders and Ministers, several solutions were mooted - including the covenant forcing homeowners to promise never to keep cats, or even dogs.
However, the idea, which was suggested by developers, has been criticised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
A spokeswoman said: "There is no evidence that a ban on keeping cats and dogs will remove the threat to the rare birds on the heaths." She said similar bans in high-rise flats were often ignored.
An alternative proposal from wildlife watchdogs Natural England, formerly English Nature, would prohibit development within 440 yards of the nesting grounds - a distance deemed to be the 'roaming range' of cats.
But other experts dispute the figure, saying cats can roam as far as two-thirds of a mile from home.
The RSPB, with more than a million members, has given cautious backing to the idea but fears cats may still reach the nests on or near the ground. Cats kill about 55 million birds in the UK every year.
Natural England responded to the EU ruling by imposing strict conditions on any development - even a single home - within three miles of the heaths, including the provision of alternative open spaces for people to walk dogs to prevent them damaging heathland.
Developers say the restrictions make it almost impossible to meet housing demand in such sought-after locations as Surrey Heath, Guildford and Woking, where average house prices have been driven up to £350,000. And they say they have had to lay off workers because of the delays.
Reader views (4)
Today I got refused a £300k house in Farnborough Hampshire because I own two house cats!
They told me that I am not even allowed to own cats that do not go outside as the development is in the exclusion zone.
The development has about 460 units on the estate and a majority of them are claimed to be "family homes".
I am gobsmacked that such a thing could be passed. It is a freehold property and I am not allowed to own it as I chose to keep cats inside my own 4 walls.
This is one of the most stupid motions ever passed. How can my cats possibly destroy the Dartford warbler's numbers when they are asleep by the radiators!
I would honestly like to get a a realistic answer to that question from one of the brainiacs that imposed this mind boggling rule.
- Tim Page, farnham Surrey
I think it's a great idea. What's the point of owning a cat if you just let it loose anyway? If people really loved their cats, they'd keep them safe at home and the birds wouldn't have a problem!
- M.G., USA
As a cat owner I can't see a ban on owning cats working, maybe a curfew on cats being alowed to roam, like they have in Australia. If a cat is found to be outside after a certain time by a Police Officer etc. it should be collected and taken to the Police Station or destroyed. I know that would mean we would probably loose one of our cats, but drastic measures have to be taken and in time the cat owners will learn to be more careful with their pets. After all you see more cats at night than you do in the day and the chances are that they will do the most damage. This is the owners simply don't care about their cats as they throw them out of the warm house onto the cold streets during the winter nights. I know that there are responsible cat owners out there, but it's the irresponsible ones that cause the problems.
- Dave Dickinson, Sheffield
There's an easy answer to this: employ gamekeepers to manage the heath areas and control (i.e. kill) all predators likely to cause a danger to the birds, this to include cats. If this permission is enacted by law so the gamekeepers have an absolute right to shoot all cats in the sensitive areas, then the problem should nicely cease to be.
- Dr Dan H., Manchester, UK
