THE deadline is days away for a colony of 30 water voles to leave the site Everton wants for its 50,000- seater stadium.

They all have to leave before work can begin and Natural England and the Environment Agency say October 31 is the deadline for their eviction.

If any of the protected species remains behind, or sneaks back, the painstaking work the team of ecologists has carried out on the banks of Kirkby Brook for three months will, in part, have to begin again.

Lead ecologist Peter Lancashire and his team have captured what they believe to be the last remaining inhabitant. Mr Lancashire said: “Everything has gone to plan so far.”

With the Secretary of State’s £400m decision on the overall Destination Kirkby scheme expected any day the stakes could not be higher.

Mr Lancashire and Andrew Young, of Arcadis UK, installed more than 350 plywood boards along the brook’s banks.

These aimed to stop the voles getting out of the water along a half mile stretch of river.

About a mile and a half of plastic fencing, which digs into the ground yards above the river, snakes around the water course and a seven foot high metal perimeter fence keeps the human population at bay.

After setting this system up, the team set humane traps and then went about destroying the empty burrows.

Mr Lancashire said: “Water voles have only been a fully protected species since April 2008 and that means they cannot be picked up without a licence.

“In the past you would have been able to dispatch them with an air rifle.”

Now a raft of regulations mean that, for example, if a water vole mother is feeding her young, developers have to back off for four weeks and let them escape the area before work can continue.

At both ends of the site are new habitats and the voles appear to have moved in.

Mr Young, who is working on behalf of Tesco, said: “The great thing is that what we’re doing here will not only enable the stadium build but will provide far better habitats for the water voles.”