THE Ludlow based charity that works to help hedgehogs is supporting a house builder’s initiative to help them.

David Wilson Homes wants homeowners to consider the needs of hedgehogs that are suffering from loss of habitat.

Homeowners are also being encouraged by wildlife experts to open up their own ‘hedgehog highways’ between their gardens, as thriving hedgehog populations need access to numerous gardens. This can be as simple as a CD-sized hole in the bottom of the fence. Once a hole has been created, homeowners can log this via Hedgehog Street’s BIG Hedgehog Map.

There are fewer than a million hedgehogs remaining in Britain, with up to a third of the population having been lost since 2000.

The move has been welcomed by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.