Image Credit: British Hedgehog Preservation Society

In March, Animal Welfare Party deputy leader and elected town councillor Jane Smith successfully tabled a motion that for every new planning application coming before Alsager Town Council in Cheshire, native hedging should be stipulated for all new boundaries, and that if native hedging isn’t possible, any solid walls or fences must incorporate ‘wildlife tunnels’ to allow hedgehogs and other animals through access.

It’s estimated that the UK has lost a third of its hedgehog population in the past decade alone, …