Eight-year-old Leila Smith sprang into action when she heard there were newts living on a Hall Green building site.
Kind-hearted Leila told her father, property developer Tony Smith, of Green Villa Developments: "No more building Daddy – we’ve got to save the newts!"
Work on the luxury development in Stonerwood Avenue stopped just a few weeks after starting in Spring this year following ecological surveys. The development was delayed for several months in the summer while arrangements were made to relocate the amphibian squatters.
Although tests showed they were not the variety of greater crested newt that is protected by law, Leila and her father were determined to help the creatures find pastures new.
Tony said : "We were keen to get on with Trinity View, our first project in the Hall Green area – but when it became clear we had little visitors we knew we had to stop work."
Leila told her father: "No way can you build those houses – you have to save the baby newts."
Now that the newts have been relocated in a suitable habitat Green Villa Developments is ready to open its Trinity View showroom in December.
The development includes six semi-detached homes and one detached dwelling. There are also current developments in Prospect View Redditch and Widney Road in Knowle.
