[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Town halls are being urged to redraw their planning rules to prevent hedgehogs from dying out.
The Wildlife Trusts has urged the Government to force councils to build “green corridors” in towns and cities to preserve wildlife. It is also asking the public to make openings in their garden fences to allow hedgehogs access.
The appeal comes after a survey published last week showed that the number of hedgehogs in Britain had slumped from 36 million in the 1950s to less than one million today. The population is falling by between 3 per cent and 5 per cent every year, and has collapsed by more than a third in the past decade, according to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species.
Mike Pratt, chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said: “It’s nature’s warning that we haven’t got the balance right. If in ten years the numbers are still declining, then we will have failed on every level.
“Hedgehogs are wandering creatures and — the clue is in the name — they follow hedges. This is a basic conservation issue — to create proper, connected living landscapes across our new urban areas.”
Many councils have biodiversity action plans, but environment groups are calling for them to be far more stringent and joined up at a national level.
Members of the public can help by leaving areas of wilderness for hedgehogs to forage, said Fay Vass, of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. “And make it easier for them to get in. A 5 sq in gap in the garden fence would do the trick.”
Sat Feb 23, 2013 8:43 am
