AMOROUS trout will not miss out on their mating season thanks to careful planning by a property developer.

Burley Developments plc are setting their clocks in tango with the mating habits of the fresh water fish.

The environmentally-minded company is to fit in work at the Scalebor Park site in a crucial period, which will not be out of rhythm with the trout's spawning season.

The developers must place a culvert across Rushy Beck, at the new entrance to the former mental hospital, in the first two weeks in September.

Adult trout will be migrating to the spot from late September to November.

The trout look for suitable areas of gravel in which to spawn their eggs.

The eggs will then be fertilised by the male and remain in the gravel, in nests called reds, until Spring.

The reds are particularly susceptible to silt blocking oxygen to the eggs, which could be disturbed by building work.

Brian Smart, of JSM Design Ltd, agents for the developers, said: "For us to create a new access at the site, we are going to have to cross the beck.

"Our main concern is to get the culvert in so that we do not have any effect on the trout.

"If we left it after September then we cannot do it again until after Spring."

Dennis Warwick, chairman of Burley Community Council, said: "It sounds like good environmental policy."

Barry Byatt of the Environment Agency, said: "It is an offence to knowingly disturb the spawning of fish. The company were eager to adopt an environmentally-friendly policy and that is what we would like to see.

Most people do not realise that they stay in the ground for so long and that silt can prevent the transfer of oxygen.

"Even after the eggs are hatched the trout stay in the gravel for some time."