Time to review Water Vole Buffer Zones?

 Baby voles

 Latrine on grass

Vole-feeding

I was surprised to find a large feeding station 80 metres from the stream, almost over the other side of the field. That is far, far above the 5-10m buffer zone required by planning regulations, and even more than the 15-20m suggested by wildlife trusts to protect habitat from building development work. I'm fairly sure the photo above does show water vole feeding and not field vole, given the scale and thickness of the plant stems. Time to review the regs?

A nice sighting at the main town car park this lunchtime; that colony keeps on going!