How a bizarre discovery led to this British golf club facing a £25,000 bill

Melrose Golf Club is seeking a grant to help look after its great crested newt habitat.

Not many golf courses can say they are home to an endangered species…

The global great crested newt population has declined in such dramatic fashion in recent decades that they are now considered an internationally endangered species.

As a result, the amphibians, as well as their eggs, breeding sites, and resting places are protected by law.

So when greenkeepers at Melrose Golf Club, in the Scottish Borders, found great crested newts on the golf course, they knew they had to act.

The volunteer-run sports club now has submitted a request to the local council’s Trust Fund for a grant of £23,498 to “pave the way for the club providing the necessary habitat for the protected species of great crested newts, while allowing greenkeeping staff the necessary time to continue maintaining the golf course to the appropriate standard to provide its service to the community.”

• Historic golf course forced to close 18th hole after council receives ‘complaints’

• Controversial new golf course in St Andrews gets go ahead

The statement from Melrose Golf Club added that “the discovery of the great crested newts has come about following unauthorised rehousing of the species on the land associated with the golf course.”   

According to the government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee, there are just 400,000 great crested newts left in the UK – with 18,000 breeding sites across all of England and Wales, and parts of Scotland.