I hope you are all doing okay and managing to chart a safe path through the viral labyrinth of 2020. 

I ended up doing a reading on the final one of Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin's 'Out to Lunch' sections of BBC Springwatch last week. I am lucky that my wife is a film-maker - so we set it up in the garden again - and got the robin to make an appearance too! Have a listen - it is the final few paragraphs of my book Linescapes. I find it fascinating - what I wrote a few years ago. I was so negative about the remote pleasures of watching wildlife on television - and about activism through the internet ... yet there I was on wildlife TV advocating signing an online petition! Chris was exceptionally kind - who said "I like Hugh, he doesn't mince his words, but he shapes them very, very well"

Clearly I was wrong - in part! Because we are making a very real difference.

A few posts ago I mentioned the Suffolk village that was experiencing a lot of attention from developers - and how one company, Persimmon, had responded to a request from a local resident, Jonathan Houseago, for hedgehog highways to be included with a definite NO. Well, he prodded them again and they have come back saying that they have taken his ideas on board but still, no.

Now compare this to another developer working in Thurston, Linden. I wrote to a contact I have at their partner company, Bovis, who you will know as the one major developer to embrace hedgehog highways. The response was not immediate as there are a lot of people to work through to get answers it seems, but yesterday I got the news that the Linden site has already got planned in over 100 hedgehog highway holes for the development. 

The difference between the attitudes of these two companies is important - not all developers are alike. But it is always worth contacting them. Again, yesterday, I got a message from Kate Shepard, near Swindon in Wiltshire contending with Bellway Homes.

Her son, Toby, had written a superb article for the community magazine including a reference to our petition and the appearance I made on the Self-Isolating Bird Club with Chris and Megan. The Site Manager had responded - and was clearly engaged with local wildlife. And while not promising action on hedgehog highways, committed to making an effort to get his bosses onside. 

What these cases show is the real work that YOU can do! Those polite letters to the Site Managers make a difference. And even if you do not manage to secure a victory locally, you are definitely sowing seeds for future victories. 

So please - when you hear in the local press of a new development, or see work starting - or even when there are show homes to visit ... get in there - write and explain why we need hedgehog highways to become a standard component of all new developments. Thank you!