Great crested newt
Great Crested Newt District Level Licensing Scheme
Protecting great crested newts
Great crested newts (GCN) are Britain’s largest and rarest native newt species.
Having significantly declined in numbers in the last 60 years due to loss of habitat, particularly the ponds in which they breed, YWT is working with landowners to create and restore this vital habitat across a significant part of Yorkshire and help to reverse this population decline.
Our key aims
The project is part of a national scheme, overseen by Natural England, to strengthen and expand the range of GCN populations in strategic areas at a landscape scale.
YWT deliver this on the ground in Yorkshire as a ‘Habitat Delivery Body’ – working to a detailed strategic model created by Natural England and alongside other key partners. The work is funded through District Level Licensing (DLL), which is now a key part of the national planning system.
District level licensing involves the creation of a large number of new ponds (as well as the restoration of those currently deemed unsuitable for use by GCN) and is an alternative to the site-by-site licensing process which has been used for development until now.
Natural England and DEFRA undertook a national study to identify population hotspots and fringe areas where habitat would be best created/restored to allow GCN to spread throughout the landscape, and pond creation is focused within these areas.
Protecting great crested newts
Our work
So far, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) has delivered the creation or restoration of 100 ponds across Yorkshire as part of this project. This equates to around 16,000m2 of wetland habitat (that’s about 3 football pitches!), providing vital pathways for newts and other freshwater species to move through the landscape.
2022/23 was the first year that YWT was involved in carrying out surveys as part of the scheme’s 25-year monitoring programme, during which 15 ponds received Habitat Suitability Index assessments and Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys for GCN presence/absence. eDNA is DNA that is released from an organism into the environment (eg from shed skin, faeces, or mucus). Research has shown that DNA from a range of aquatic animals - including newts - can be detected in water samples at very low concentrations, so these surveys are a useful way to tell whether GCN are present within ponds.
Since these initial surveys, the results have proved promising, with presence in the region found to be as expected for ponds in these early growth stages. We anticipate that newts and other wildlife will further colonise the ponds naturally, which can take a few years!
All ponds created as part of this scheme enter into the monitoring programme one full year after they are excavated, so the number of ponds being surveyed increases every year. This year (2026/27), a whopping 77 ponds received eDNA surveys! And we’re really hoping colonisation continues to increase about the 25% rate we saw last year.
Please note we are currently inviting expressions of interest from the following local authority areas: City of York, North Yorkshire Council (Selby, Hambleton, Ryedale, Scarborough, Harrogate, Craven, Richmondshire), North York Moors National Park, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Leeds and Wakefield.
Already YWT have received some excellent feedback on the delivery of this project:
“We are very pleased with the result and looking forward to seeing the site develop and colonise over the next couple of years. Already the ponds, with just a bit of water in, add so much to the field and at the weekend we saw deer, fox and badger prints in the surrounding soil. Fingers crossed newts will find their way to us in due course”
“The implementation of two ponds has been carried out with 1st class diligence. Both my partner and I are exceptionally pleased with the process and I look forward to being a contributory factor in the Great Crested Newt project”
How you can help
If you are a landowner and would be interested in creating/restoring ponds for great crested newts, please email our team at gcn@ywt.org.uk with the following information:
• Your name, contact details and the address of your site
• A 10-figure grid reference (or What3Words) locating each of the proposed ponds (this is required to check initial eligibility)
• Title your email ‘GCN pond funding’
Please note we are currently inviting expressions of interest from the following local authority areas: Scarborough, Selby, City of York, Ryedale, Hambleton, Craven, Richmondshire, Harrogate, Leeds and Wakefield.
