Nets, buckets and bare hands used to round up lizards

A common lizard crawls on the jacket of reptile enthusiast and area co-ordinator for Streetpride North Jonathan Oakes.

LIZARDS have become the centre of attention in a Derby field earmarked as the site of a proposed waste treatment plant.

Jonathan Oakes, from Streetpride North, is part of a team council workers racing against time to move common lizards from the Sinfin Lane site before they start hibernating.

The fields in which they live are the subject of an ongoing planning inquiry into Resource Recovery Solutions' proposed plant.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust says no building work can go ahead at the site until it is satisfied all the lizards have been moved.

The common lizard is a species which, despite its name, is rare and has declined in number because of destruction of its habitat. Before last year, the last time it was spotted in Derby was 1997.

Planners have to take the reptile into account as they are protected by law from being killed, injured or sold.

Council staff have been using nets, buckets and their bare hands to catch the lizards, which have been lured on to sheets of material, similar to roofing felt, which helps keep up their body heat.

The lizards are being moved to a nearby area behind a special fence to stop them returning to the site.