Village Litter Pick - Lorraine Davies A big thank you to the villagers who joined the village litter pick on 17 November 2024. After a health and safety briefing they set off around the village and surrounding roads to collect up the rubbish. Whilst the roads within the village were largely litter free, we still filled lots of sacks, particularly with cans, bottles and fast food rubbish from the main approach roads into the village. Wendy Anderson, who kindly donated her time and culinary skills, had sausage baps (sausages kindly donated by Paul Rogers) and refreshments ready for their return. It was great to see so many people getting involved in this very worthwhile project for the village. It was also lovely that villagers were able to stay a while after to catchup over refreshments. Thank you again to all who participated in the clean up. Sustaining our Village SUSTAINABILITY GROUP 4 WI NTER I S SUE | J ANUARY 2 0 2 5 For the Hedgehogs of Shapwick Finding it hard because the photos a bFlack and white? Find a flourition of Shapwick News at: https://www.shapwickparishcounci l.org.uk/parish-newsletters/ CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS Who doesn’t like hedgehogs? I mean, they are cute and prickly at the same time! Its a shame that I rarely see any. According to the British Trust, back in the 1950s, there were about 30 MILLION hedgehogs in the UK! But sadly, in the 1990s, the hedgehogs declined to only 1.5 million. The most recent survey in 2018 shows that there are now only about 879,000 hedgehogs left in the UK. How depressing is that? So, like the eco-friendly person I am, I visited a hedgehog workshop at the Secret World Wildlife Rescue Centre recently. They created a fun quiz on hedgehog facts where I learnt a bunch of new things, and showed us how to build a hedgehog house for our gardens! If you want to help our Shapwick hedgehogs, here are some things you could do. #2. Know what to feed them! They need a food source, so having an insect hotel or a place where insects or slugs can make their homes in little cracks helps the hedgehog find a meal easily. But, surprisingly, hedgehogs also like to eat cat or dog food, and baby hedgehogs drink baby dog milk! Just remember that they might not like the smell of fish and can’t drink ordinary cow milk because they are lactose intolerant, so make sure to check that the food you are choosing is meat-based and dairy free. #6. If you see a hedgehog, alive or (sadly) dead, report it to bighedgehogmap.org, where you can map where you spot a neighbourhood friend! And if you find an injured or sick hedgehog, take it to the Secret World Wildlife Rescue Centre for it to be cared for and sent back into the wild when it is healthy again. So let’s look after our hedgehogs together. Hopefully, in the future, our hedgehog population will be almost as high and maybe higher than in the 1950s! #1. Have a sheltered place for them to rest! Our neighbourhood hedgehogs need a place to nap, right? So if you have a log pile or some other sheltered place, they can sleep there for the night. (Its even better if you have a hedgehog house made specifically for them!) - see above #3. !WARNING! If you are going to burn garden waste, try not to pre-build your bonfire the night before, you never know who is going to move into it for a long rest. We don’t want to set fire to our little friends! #4. Lawnmowers can wake them up! Be careful when you are mowing your grass because loud noises can wake up a sleepy hedgehog and frighten it half to death! The hedgehog might run straight into the path of your whipper snipper… Sustainability group - Steve Polden Our application for the thermal imaging camera from Somerset Council was approved, and we are waiting for it to be available to us. If you are interested in a ‘thermal survey’of your property, please drop an email to sustainable@shapwick.org and you will be added to the list. As part of the development of the village green, the Parish Council have approved a small grant to buy and plant some ‘wild flowers’. We have also applied for a grant from the Polden Environmental Network; we propose to use this for some trees and/or additional flower planting. The property market is a bit slow at the moment, and it appears that the hedgehog box we installed is still vacant (of a hedgehog, plenty of smaller invertebrate residents), but we hope that someone will find it desirable at some point. #5. Making sure hedgehogs can travel! To make a hedgehogs life a lot easier, try cutting a 13cm hole in your fence to create a path going through your garden so that our buddies don’t have to climb our fences or cross many roads. Ask your neighbour if they will do the same on their fence to create a little hedgehog-highway! Ponds are also a problem for hedgehogs. They might fall in and struggle to get out! Try adding a small ramp out of your pond so that they can swim over and crawl out with ease.
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