Wildlife set to thwart Sheeran a second time

ED SHEERAN’S hopes of an open air concert in Germany this summer appear to have been thwarted by a combination of nesting skylarks, trees and unexploded Second World War bombs.

The musician, who has sold 85,000 tickets for a concert in Düsseldorf on July 22, had his plans thrown into doubt after conservationists objected to the felling of 104 trees at the venue to accommodate the crowd.

It has already been postponed once, after plans to site the original show in Essen were abandoned over fears that rare skylarks might be disturbed. Then it emerged there could be 100 unexploded Second World War bombs there.

Thomas Geisel, the mayor of Düsseldorf, offered a site so the show could go on, but conservationists objected to the felling of trees and a safety expert warned of potential overcrowding.

It is not the first time Sheeran has been thwarted by wildlife. Plans to build a chapel at his estate in Norfolk were put on hold when a wildlife trust believed the protected great crested newt might have a habitat nearby.