Hugh Warwick’s Hedgehog Highways petition – please sign!

26th March 2019

Hugh Warwick is a hedgehog expert based in Oxford who spends his days doing all he can to help our spiky friends. Please read a message from Hugh below about his new petition for making Hedgehog Highways standard in new development.

Most of the threats faced by hedgehogs are enormous – things beyond our
control – like industrial agriculture and our road network. But as Hedgehog Street has shown, we can make a difference in our own patches. We can link up our gardens and allow hedgehogs to move freely. This is doubly important as we have learnt how important our urban environment is and how it is a much more attractive place for hedgehogs than the countryside.

It can be hard work, drilling a new hole, so wouldn’t it be better if all new houses were built with fences that allowed wildlife to move? That is the very simple request I have put into a petition that is going to soon be on the desk of the Housing Minister, Kit Malthouse MP.

When the petition started, last October, I really hoped we would get 10,000 people signing up. I had no idea how popular it would be – we are nearly at half a million signatures! And very soon we hope to be meeting with the Minister – asking that he takes the health of our ecosystems into account when allowing new houses to be built.

So join me, if you have not already, in sending a very clear and simple message to Government. We are all doing our bit to help hedgehogs, now it is time for decision makers to step in and make it that bit easier. Sign the petition and share it with everyone you know!

Thank you.

Hedgehog Hugh

To sign Hugh’s petition click here.

Hugh Warwick is spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, an author and an ecologist. www.hughwarwick.com