Hedgehog corridors required for new homes

HEDGEHOG corridors could be a requirement for any new homes built in Westbury as town councillors added it to their list of question that can be asked of developers applying for planning permission in the town. 

A hedgehog corridor can be as simple as just a gap under boundary fences and it creates a valuable, connected network of green space that hedgehogs can roam through – particularly in housing estates. 

Speaking about this at the meeting of Westbury Town Council’s highways, planning and development committee last month, cllr Mike Sutton said, “Hedgehogs have seen a dramatic population decline in recent years and part of the reason for this is because developers aren’t putting in connecting corridors.” 

Cllr Jane Russ added, “As someone who writes about this kind of stuff for a living, I can tell you that the one thing that makes the world of difference is connectivity. I heard in the Tudor period a squirrel could get in a tree in Wales and not touch the ground until Windsor and that kind of connectivity doesn’t exist anymore.” 

The full list of adopted questions includes electric vehicle charging points, solar panels, sustainable energy provision, green spaces, provision of trees for carbon absorption, provision of sustainable transport by avoiding roads, a sustainable assessment (is the development increasing or reducing environmental damage?), ground source heat pumps, traffic flow and traffic calming to be considered in all developments, and now hedgehog corridors.