News Shorts & Other Busyness

Newt Age Travellers

Squall 4, April/May 1993, pg. 22.

John MacGregor, the Transport Secretary, made much of the recent news that his department had gallantly rescued some crested newts from the path of the A11.

A staggering sum of £150,000 was spent on secure housing for the traumatised newts, in the shape of a pond built at Wymondham in Norfolk. Terrible news was then broken by the Department that New Age Travellers had moved onto the site, re-traumatising the poor newts.

In fact the travellers were on the site long before the newts arrived and, contrary to the further trauma alleged by the Transport Department, they treated their new amphibian co-habitees with affection and respect.

However, unlike the favoured newts, the travellers do not have secure housing to look forward to, as they were promptly evicted forthwith.