Agenda item

Purpose: The Council received a petition for debate at Full Council on the 6th October to consider establishing Hedgehog Highways in new developments.  This report considers the matters raised through the petition and proposes a way forward to support a greater understanding and promotion of the requirements of hedgehogs in West Berkshire. 

Council considered a report regarding the response to a petition, received on 6 October 2023, regarding Hedgehog Highways.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Tony Vickers and seconded by Councillor Owen Jeffery.

That the Council:

Recognise that the aims of the motion are already covered by policies in both the West Berkshire Local Plan and also the Local Plan Review 2039.

To investigate the possibility of a Hedgehog Positive Campaign to encourage all residents to adopt Hedgehog Highways.

Councillor T Vickers said that he had welcomed the initiative undertaken by Newbury Town Council that had been referred to in the petition, however, he could not support this petition as it was worded and he did not have the powers to change the wording of the petition tonight. He mentioned that he would have supported an alternative wording of the petition if this had been possible.  Newbury Town Council had requested that only new housing developments be required to provide hedgehog highways, as the report detailed in section 5.13 any planning conditions must pass legal tests and be backed by evidence. There would be certain developments where it would not be relevant or possible to impose the proposed conditions such as industrial sites.  There would also be certain major housing developments that would be unsuitable habitats for hedgehogs. He would have supported the petition if it could have been amended to suitable new developments having hedgehog highways. He pointed Council to the second recommendation in the report that encouraged existing homes in the district to have hedgehog friendly home where possible by having holes in their boundaries.  No sensible planning authority could accept the petition unamended, even though he applauded the sentiments behind it.

Councillor Richard Somner said that he was glad to see in the report that the officer recommendations had been positively taken as they were the experts and do not block things for the sake of it. He mentioned his garden that had fences but also a gate that hedgehogs could pass through.   Campaigning and education was the right way forward to get better outcomes.

Councillor Adrian Abbs said that this was a new administration and they were open to listening.  He recommended that petitioners come and speak to the Executive prior to submission to see if an acceptable outcome could be achieved.

Councillor Carolyne Culver mentioned that the petition had been presented to Council back in October 2022 but the petitioner could not attend tonight as they had such short notice that it was being considered.  It was regrettable that it had taken so long to get the response before Council without any meaningful dialogue with the petitioner. She mentioned that the report said the environmental impact would be neutral but helping hedgehogs survive would be positive.  The report also mentioned that positive action would be detrimental on other species, but we had policies to recommend boxes for barn owls.   As a member of a planning committee, she was frustrated that we did not have a policy that would help hedgehogs when we did for other animals.

Councillor Culver said that when the Environment Act was implemented we would have an obligation to work with local nature recovery networks and we will have the ecologist from Windsor and Maidenhead Council working with us.  She said that paragraph 5.18 of the report mentioned that one of the reasons for decline in the hedgehog population was obesity yet the Governments report did not mention obesity. It seemed that this was yet another report trying to find excuses not to do something positive. The report also said that some people may block the holes, yet lets be positive and accept most would not. If we adopted what the petition was asking we would also be meeting one of the requirements in the Local Plan. There report also lacked detail in what an education campaign would be, over 1500 residents had signed the petition and wanted action.

Councillor David Marsh said he was disappointed in the administration as the petition arose out of a proposal by the Liberal Democrat Newbury Town Council. There were many people in the chamber that voted for the proposals at Newbury Town Council.  It seemed that the administration were trying to find reasons not to do something that had previously been supported. He asked Council to agree in principle what the petition was asking for and find wording to put it into the Local Plan and planning policy.

Councillor Lee Dillon said that there had been numerous petitions brought to Council were members agreed on most points but not all and the Monitoring Officer had advised that we could not amend a petition.  Constitutionally we have to respond to the wording of the petition. He was sure that the Portfolio Holder look at working up a policy on this issue.  We cannot pick and choose which part of the petition we reply to.

Councillor Owen Jeffery said that the majority of the chamber supported the principle of the petition but as it had been said we could not pick which parts of the petition to support, we could not change the wording of the petition.

In summary Councillor Vickers said that the administration were not against hedgehog highways but could not support all that the petition asked, there was no reason why Council should not support the recommendations before them.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.