Five new homes approved for Glatton
We have received notification that approval has been granted for five new homes in Glatton, but don’t panic, these are hedgehog houses. Glatton Parish Council have been progressing an initiative to help hedgehogs thrive in Glatton, led by Paul Williams.
The intention of the Hedgehog program is in the main to provide a hedgehog friendly environment for our little prickly friends. Hedgehogs are a long standing part of the British countryside, but are sadly in decline. The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report (Download Report) is the definitive assessment of how hedgehog populations are doing in Britain and it does not look good. In the 2015 report the evidence suggests a continuing decline, in both rural and urban landscapes. Since 2000, rural populations have declined by at least a half and urban populations by up to a third in the same period.
The Parish Council have taken the following steps to help hedgehogs in Glatton:
- Engaged with Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity (SWCC) to offer Glatton as a possible rehoming site for injured and orphaned hedgehogs. SWCC have approved Glatton and have offered us 5 pairs of hedgehogs for our first round of releases, at the end of April / early May
- The Parish Council has approached Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Biodiversity Partnership to seek funding in support of our program. They have agreed to fund us over two years (to be reviewed at the end of the first year) which has allowed for the purchase of five deluxe homes, each suitable for a pair of hedgehogs. They have also offered funding to support the purchase of a wildlife camera to track and photograph our new residents. One condition of the funding offer is that we have been asked to support their research through the use of footprint traps to survey existing hedgehog activity.
How can you help?
We are aiming to make this an engaging community project and seek volunteers to get involved. We require a team of ‘Hedgehog Heroes’ who we hope will be our younger generation of residents supported by parents. If you have a child who would be interested in learning about hedgehogs and supporting the gathering of data from the footprint traps as well as photos and video from the wildlife camera then please email admin@glatton-hogblog.uk.
If you are a home owner and would be interested in having a hedgehog house then please let us know and you will be added to the list of interested Mum and/or Dad of a future hedgehog family, again simply email your details to admin@glatton-hogblog.uk. All locations will need to be surveyed and approved and the final approval will have to be from the SWCC.
To support this initiative we have set up a website ‘HogBlog’, where the new ‘parents’ of the hedgehogs can register and keep us and our supporters up-to-date on progress, the hedgehog heroes can also help with this. The website is currently under construction (so may change) but you can see the site, access information and even register now at www.glatton-hogblog.uk.
Please join us in supporting this initiative and spread the word around Glatton.
Glatton Parish Council