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Council votes to kill moles over 'safety' fears

Essie, 11, is among the volunteers who are flattening the molehills

A council has voted to trap and kill moles that have been making molehills on a field because it believes they are a danger to public safety.

The parish councillors in Woodborough in Nottinghamshire have opted to use lethal "scissor traps" despite volunteers offering to flatten the molehills.

The RSPCA said these traps risk causing "prolonged suffering" because they do not always kill moles outright.

Church warden Ray Goddard is now leading a group called Mole Patrol, which he believes will solve the problem humanely.

Getty Images A mole coming out of a molehillGetty Images
Councillors voted to kill the moles using scissor traps

Mr Goddard said: "Well I think the council are making a mountain out of a molehill, and I just wish that they would work with us.

"I want to work with the council and come to a humane solution, instead of having this dreadful killing."

Mr Goddard said he had already successfully controlled molehills at the village church for a year by carefully removing the soil every week.

The Mole Patrol group - which includes children from a school next to the field - has now started doing the same.

Cameron
Cameron, 10, does not believe the moles should be killed

Essie, 11, said: "There are a lot of moles but I think it's bad to kill them because they're innocent, they haven't really done anything."

Cameron, 10, said he and some of his friends had already found a dead mole and it made him feel "heartbroken".

"We just saw the trap and we looked underneath and we saw the mole and I think it was dead," he said.

"I felt heartbroken because if people did that to us we wouldn't like it, so how would the moles feel?"

The field in Woodborough
Woodborough Parish Council said "daily damage" was being caused by the moles on this field

Councillors said in a statement: "Woodborough Parish Council recognises its responsibility to manage risk on the playing field for the safety of its users following advice from its insurance provider.

"The field is well used for football, cricket, bootcamp classes and school sports in addition to being open to the general public.

"Daily damage is being caused by moles, and removing the mole hills does not reverse this damage."

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