Council has confirmed installation after long local campaign

Picture: Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

A campaign by SW15 Hedgehogs to have signs put up on local roads to warn motorists of the potential presence of hedgehogs has met with success.

Wandsworth Council have confirmed that the signs will be put up but a date is yet to be confirmed.

The group’s research has research identified ‘hot spots’ within SW15, which are roads frequented by hedgehogs. These include Dover House Road, Huntingfield Road, Dover Park Drive, Commondale and Lower Common South.

Warning signs have proven beneficial alerting drivers of animals in roads and Wandsworth Council has agreed to signage upon receipt of a petition demonstrating at least 51% of hotspot households agree to the proposed signs.

A spokesperson for the group said, “We are very excited and relieved and we are grateful to Fleur Anderson MP and to Wandsworth Council for listening to our concerns/petition.

“SW15 Hedgehogs is a small but dedicated group and I would like to thank all our volunteers for their support and in particular Giordana Canali, Catherine Lalani, Julia Stephenson and Cheryl Boxell for their invaluable help in obtaining petition signatures.

“We strive for direct action to help hedgehogs with the most important thing being to create a hedgehog highway, which is giving access linking gardens via a small hole in the fence or under gates. Hedgehog highways are small 13cm by 13cm access holes in garden fences. Putting out water and not using lethal pesticides and slug pellets will offer much support to help our hedgehog populations. “

Annually, an estimated 100,000 hedgehogs are killed on British roads and hoglets orphaned from these accidents result in many more unrecorded deaths.

In 2020, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced hedgehogs as ‘vulnerable to extinction’. There are fewer than a million hedgehogs left in the UK. Fragmentation of gardens, loss of hedgerows and insect prey are major factors in the long term decline of hedgehogs.

November 27, 2020