Claudia Kretzschmar with Rick Jefferson, from charity Wood that Works, installing gaps in fences

A HEDGEHOG superhighway with dedicated tunnels to help the spike-backed creatures navigate a dangerous road are among plans from a community-led green project.

Growing Green, a community interest company founded in 2021, has worked to increase biodiversity in and around Highgate.

Its work has seen them lead projects in secondary schools and on housing estates, and now they are proposing digging out special hedgehog tunnels underneath Swain’s Lane to help let the boroughs hedgehog population mingle in safety.

The group has proposed creating up to four tunnels, linking Highgate Cemetery’s hedgehog population with the green spaces of the Holly Lodge estate.

This could help them find new habitats and join up with hedgehogs living on Hampstead Heath.

Under Growing Green’s plans, the road would also have new rain gardens installed: this would help manage the flow of water down the hill, which as storms become more severe, has seen the risk of flash floods increase.

It would also act as a chicane to narrow the road in places, slowing cars down and giving wildlife less tarmac to tackle to reach safety.

A proposal has been sent to the Town Hall for consideration.

A hedgehog in a specially made house at Parliament Hill School

Founding member Jeska Harrington Gold told the New Journal: “There are places where there are road tunnels for mammals and amphibians. We know they work and are possible to make.”

Growing Green’s Claudia Kretzschmar said: “We wanted to look at how we can increase biodiversity on school grounds.

“Even places like Parliament Hill had plenty of green space  but it was in the form of wide patches of grass.”

She added: “We felt it could be improvised by planting world flower meadows, for example. We wanted to make sure teenagers do not feel disconnected from nature.”

Growing Green includes taking students on nature walks and encouraging them to help create wildlife friendly spaces, both at their schools and home.

And to help hedgehogs have larger areas to forage for food and breed, creating hedgehog highways has been key, she added.

So far, more than 100 special hedgehog holes have been made on Holly Lodge in garden walls and fences so the creatures can go further afield to find food and meet potential mates.

One Parliament Hill student had access to a wood workshop, so they began creating hedgehog homes to install in the school’s grounds.

Growing Green set up cameras to see if the homes had residents – and to their delight, hedgehogs have moved in.

Ms Kretzschmar added: “Hedgehogs eat bugs and beetles, and anything like that they can find, so we also created areas for them to hunt in.”