Revealed: £11,000 spent on hedgehog road safety signs in Merthyr Tydfil
Will signs save the lives of the spiky, endangered species?
Hello and welcome to The Valleys Lead.
The question we’re all asking each other this week? How are you coping in the heat? The peak of the heatwave is due today and tomorrow, so we hope you’re managing to stay safe.
After weeks of fairly serious editions from The Valleys Lead, we’ve got something lighter for you today - hedgehogs signs in Merthyr Tydfil. They’re scattered - apparently very specifically - around the County Borough. We found out how much they cost, and asked residents if they they think the signs will protect the endangered species.
The story is below!
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The Valleys Briefing
(A little round-up of some stories in brief from our valleys. Anytime you have something you’d like to share, no matter how big or small, email laurencrosbymedlicott@gmail.com):
Tragic news from Blaina this week - A murder investigation has been launched after a body was found on Monday night in the Duffryn Park area of Blaina, Blaenau Gwent. It’s following the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl. Gwent Police said formal identification was yet to take place but the family of Lilly, who had been reported missing, had been informed.
Residents of Glyncoch have been writing about nearby quarry blasts which “shook” houses this week. They are saying the blasts have felt like earthquakes, and they are worried about the impact on their homes. The Valleys Lead spoke to residents earlier in the year about how they felt their voices haven’t been heard with quarry expansions. On the community Facebook page, a template has been released for residents to complain to Heidelberg (in charge of operations) and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.
Caerphilly Council is borrowing £24 million to redevelop a site at Duffryn Business Park, in Ystrad Mynach, as a new municipal transfer station for recyclable waste. Since 2024, the Welsh Government has required councils to recycle at least 70% of the waste they collect, but performance levels in Caerphilly have fallen short. The Council hopes the new depot will help it recycle more waste and avoid costly government fines, which could run into millions of pounds.
Revealed: £11,000 spent on hedgehog road safety signs in Merthyr Tydfil
If you’re walking or driving around Merthyr Tydfil, you’ll soon notice official hedgehog road-safety warning signs scattered around the borough.
The Valleys Lead can reveal that Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council has spent £11,000 to create and install the signs, according to a Freedom of Information request made to the Council. 100% of the funding for the signage came from Welsh Government Local Places for Nature, we were told.
“Hedgehogs are a rapidly declining species in the UK, with population estimates suggesting significant ongoing losses each year (around 900,00 are in the UK, with estimates of 29,00 lost every year),” a spokesperson from the Council told The Valleys Lead. “They are also protected under Schedule 6 of the Environment Act, which places a duty on local authorities to maintain and enhance biodiversity. As such, raising awareness of this species forms part of the Council’s wider responsibilities and commitments to nature recovery.”
The decision to install the signs wasn’t solely in response to pressure from specific environmental groups (although this pressure would have been taken into account), but also in response to growing national concern about biodiversity loss, including the decline of hedgehogs.
On Merthyr Tydfil’s Biodiversity Partnership’s Facebook page, every single response to the news was positive and supportive.
Cate Barrow, a local resident in Quaker’s Yard, told The Valleys Lead that “thousands of hedgehogs are killed on the roads each year,” and that it is often very young hedgehogs who are “naïve” about roads.
“Latest research shows that they are doing better living near people rather than out in the countryside, and as such, this puts them at more risk from things like cars,” she said. “They are difficult to spot on a dark road at night. These signs have been well received by local people who did not even know that they had hedgehogs in the area. Merthyr Tydfil County has a good population of hedgehogs at the moment, but like everywhere, their numbers are declining.”
While you’d struggle to find someone who doesn’t want to protect hedgehogs in Merthyr Tydfil, some have questioned whether the signs achieve their intended protection.
Another Merthyr Tydfil resident, Chris Black, whose profession is working outdoors in nature, told The Valleys Lead that while he “deeply cares about protecting our wild spaces and making sure native species thrive to ensure flourishing ecosystems that benefit humans and wildlife alike,” he thinks the signage is inefficient.
“If you genuinely cared about wildlife, you would invest £11,000 into schemes that actually help protect and nurture green spaces and re-wilding,” he said. “I have no issue with people creating awareness of environmental issues in their local communities and would actively encourage people to find their own connection with nature. But to spend that scale of money on something that, in my opinion, will have no impact, frustrates me.”
