article_snippet.sent: The £135,000 was spent trapping and moving water voles from Somerset Levels ahead of dredging .
article_snippet.sent: Taxpayers have footed a £135,000 bill to move 50 protected water voles - at a cost of £2,500 per animal - to allow dredging of Somerset Levels.
article_snippet.sent: The £135,000 was spent trapping and moving 55 of the six-inch-long furry creatures from their bankside burrows on Somerset Levels ahead of dredging work.
article_snippet.sent: In February 2014, when the scheme was first revealed the scheme was estimated the scheme would cost £24,000 to put the tiny voles into 'winter storage'.
article_snippet.sent: Now some Somerset Levels residents - while anxious to have rivers dredged to avoid the devastating floods from two winters ago - think the scheme is an unnecessary waste of public money.
article_snippet.sent: Money spent on relocating the voles was a small percentage of the £6 millionspent on dredging five miles (8 km) of the rivers Tone and Parrett, the Environment Agencysaid previously.
article_snippet.sent: Some Somerset Levels residents - while anxious to have rivers dredged to avoid the devastating floods (pictured) - think the scheme to remove the voles is an unnecessary waste of public money .
highlights_snippet.sent: It has cost the taxpayer £135,000 to move 55 protected water voles .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Critics say moving the voles is an unnecessary waste of public money .