East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) is launching a brand-new campaign to encourage the protection of hedgehogs and swifts across the district.

The campaign, called ‘ECDCWatch’, will be led by ECDC’s recycling champion, Michael Recycle and will feature the adventures of two new characters; Hester the hedgehog and Taylor the swift.

ECDCWatch will include a press campaign and social media posts with helpful hints and tips on how to look after hedgehogs and swifts and what the public can do to help lessen the decline. It will be supported by the ECDC Planning department who will share information and best practice with planners and developers.

Councillor Elaine Griffin-Singh, who is championing this project, said: “We need to do more to protect hedgehogs and swifts and prevent this very apparent decline.

“There are plenty of things we can do as a community, including creating small holes in our fences, which allows hedgehogs to move around at night, and encouraging developers to see swift boxes as an addition to new houses as standard practice.”

“Hester the hedgehog and Taylor the swift are welcome additions to the Michael Recycle environmental campaign, and we are excited to see our social media pages become a hub of information for the general public to help them look after hedgehogs and swifts. All characters have a goal in protecting our planet and we hope residents will get behind this.”

This year, The Guardian newspaper reported that number of hedgehogs in the UK has fallen by half since the year 2000. Similarly, swifts saw a 51% decrease in their breeding numbers in the UK between 1995 and 2015. It is thought that a contributing factor to the falling numbers in both hedgehogs and swifts is habitat loss.

Director of Operations, Jo Brooks, added: “Michael Recycle has been a huge success and we hope that, by introducing Hester the hedgehog and Taylor the swift, we can encourage more people to put conservation measures in place. We are committed to making East Cambridgeshire a fantastic place to live and visit and we are proud to be taking the lead in this important issue.

“We hope that by doing our bit as a district, we can see hedgehogs and swifts increase in number across East Cambridgeshire.”

For more information on the campaign, please visit our ECDCWatch page here.

You can follow the Michael Recycle Twitter page to stay up to date on ECDC Watch here.