For this update I have Andy Ottaway to thank. He posted the photo on here to the Hedgehog Highways Facebook Group.If you have not joined, I heartily recommend it. Nearly 20,000 people sharing their hedgehog stories and hole-building escapades - and marshalled by two wonderful moderators (thanks again to Rose and Jaqueline). 

Andy is a bricklaying contractor working for the developers Drew Smiths on a site in Blandford, Dorset. I was so thrilled to see the evidence of the holes going in ... and how it is done. Most of the developers have not been very forthcoming with this sort of image.

I asked Andy whether this was the result of local pressure - which we have seen over the last year or so springing from this very petition. It is all the more exciting that the holes are going in because they were part of the planning requirements - which also insisted that bird and bat boxes are included. 

Why is that so exciting? Because we can't be everywhere! And if the local authority planners are going to start to do our job for us, not only does that have the potential to reach many more developers, but it comes with the backing of an obligation ... 

The purpose of this petition is to get the law changed. The small change that came with the change to the National Planning Policy Framework was great - but it was just guidance. I want there to be obligation. 

I think it is in no small part down to the pressure that we have all applied that local authorities are beginning to take on this and make it happen. Won't stop me trying to get the law changed though! 

So thank you so much to Andy - and to all of you who politely prod planners and developers ... we can and will make a difference.

And just to clarify - my desire to see hedgehog highways included in new developments is not in anyway giving developers a freehand to pillage the land. We must first of all ensure that new housing goes where it is needed and where it will cause the least trouble.