New hope for families in danger of losing homes in Ireland?
A man with debts of €400,000 told the judge he just wanted the matter over with?.
FAMILIES living in fear of losing their homes are to be given fresh hope after a major overhaul of the insolvency system.
Plans aimed at curbing the number of repossessions will force banks to justify using their veto over State-backed insolvency deals.
The Government is considering forcing banks, who are initiating almost 1,000 legal actions a month, to go through an appeals process if they use the veto.
Also being considered is the scrapping of the tax charged on insolvency deals.
The proposals are being drawn up by the Government and insolvency experts in a bid to help combat fears of mass repossessions. Court lists are currently clogged.
Many of these cases are likely to end up as evictions just as an election is called next year.
In less than one hour yesterday, 18 people were adjudicated bankrupt in Dublin’s High Court.
One man with debts of €400,000 told the judge he just wanted the matter “over with”.
The judge adjourned another petition after being told the debtor, a solicitor, wanted time to recover fees due to him from a legal action.
Among the Government’s insolvency proposals are: ÷ Allowing the insolvency service to put in place what is known as a protective certificate (PC).
- 1 Reducing the period of debt relief notices (DRNs) and debt settlement arrangements (DSAs) to just one year.
- 2 Expanding the mortgage-to-rent scheme for families who have no hope of getting on top of their arrears.
- 3 Bringing the bankruptcy period down to one year.
The overhaul of the State’s Insolvency Service is to be introduced after claims that it has failed to gain traction with distressed borrowers.
Banks have been criticised for failing to engage with the new processes. Mortgage campaigners such as David Hall have been heavily critical of the way the Insolvency Service has turned out.
There are no plans to get rid of the banks’ veto on deals, but there is a proposal to bring in an appeals process when banks reject insolvency arrangements.
The appeal mechanism is likely to operate within the Insolvency Service, sources said.
Constitutional property rights issue means it will not be possible to remove the veto of banks over deals.
But forcing banks to justify their decision to use a veto, with the results published, is seen as a way of limiting its impact.
There are also proposals to reduce the voting power of banks in creditor meetings on insolvency deals.
The Government will also consider abolishing the 23% VAT (valued added tax) rate charged on the likes of personal insolvency deals (PIAs) and debt settlement arrangements (DSAs) that are put in place through the Insolvency Service.
The 23% VAT rate adds up to €460 to the €2,000 fees charged by an insolvency practitioner.
The tax can be as high as €2,000 for a more complicated insolvency arrangement.
No VAT is charged on similar debt deals in the UK.
Another change being looked at is allowing the insolvency service to put in place a protective certificate (PC).
At the moment this is the function of the courts.
A PC is issued by the court which offers a borrower protection from legal proceedings by creditors while they apply for a formal debt deal. It usually stays in place for 70 days.
“This change would help to make the Insolvency Service operate on a less formal basis, something many practitioners have been calling for,” a source close to the discussions said.
The Government is also looking at a massive expansion of the mortgage-to-rent scheme.
This is where people with no hope of repaying their mortgage arrears and getting back on track have their home bought by a charity or a local authority.
Banks are forced to sell the property at the current market value. Any residual owed on the mortgage is written off by the lender.
Families no longer own their home or have any financial interest in it but they can remain there.
Figures given to the Dáil last week by Finance Minister Michael Noonan show that just 85 mortgage-to-rent arrangements have been put in place since 2013.
No costings were provided for the 85 deals, but it is estimated the combined cost was less than €13m, meaning the scheme is an efficient method of solving the growing social housing crisis, experts said.
At present, the scheme is confined to people whose homes have a market value of less than €220,000 in the Dublin area, and less than €180,000 in the rest of the State.
A massive opening up of the scheme would see these thresholds radically altered to allow far more people to qualify.
Reducing the bankruptcy period to one year would give more bargaining power to families in financial distress, but there is reluctance to go this route within Fine Gael.
Mr Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation is due to meet Department of Finance officials this week to discuss how to avoid mass repossessions.
Among the proposals he will make is to change the voting thresholds for banks in creditor meetings where debt deals get the go-ahead.
This would lessen the power of banks to sink arrangements that form part of the State’s Insolvency Service.
FAMILIES living in fear of losing their homes are to be given fresh hope after a major overhaul of the insolvency system.
Plans aimed at curbing the number of repossessions will force banks to justify using their veto over State-backed insolvency deals.
The Government is considering forcing banks, who are initiating almost 1,000 legal actions a month, to go through an appeals process if they use the veto.
Also being considered is the scrapping of the tax charged on insolvency deals.
The proposals are being drawn up by the Government and insolvency experts in a bid to help combat fears of mass repossessions. Court lists are currently clogged.
Many of these cases are likely to end up as evictions just as an election is called next year.
In less than one hour yesterday, 18 people were adjudicated bankrupt in Dublin’s High Court.
One man with debts of €400,000 told the judge he just wanted the matter “over with”.
The judge adjourned another petition after being told the debtor, a solicitor, wanted time to recover fees due to him from a legal action.
Among the Government’s insolvency proposals are: ÷ Allowing the insolvency service to put in place what is known as a protective certificate (PC).
- 1 Reducing the period of debt relief notices (DRNs) and debt settlement arrangements (DSAs) to just one year.
- 2 Expanding the mortgage-to-rent scheme for families who have no hope of getting on top of their arrears.
- 3 Bringing the bankruptcy period down to one year.
The overhaul of the State’s Insolvency Service is to be introduced after claims that it has failed to gain traction with distressed borrowers.
Banks have been criticised for failing to engage with the new processes. Mortgage campaigners such as David Hall have been heavily critical of the way the Insolvency Service has turned out.
There are no plans to get rid of the banks’ veto on deals, but there is a proposal to bring in an appeals process when banks reject insolvency arrangements.
The appeal mechanism is likely to operate within the Insolvency Service, sources said.
Constitutional property rights issue means it will not be possible to remove the veto of banks over deals.
But forcing banks to justify their decision to use a veto, with the results published, is seen as a way of limiting its impact.
There are also proposals to reduce the voting power of banks in creditor meetings on insolvency deals.
The Government will also consider abolishing the 23% VAT (valued added tax) rate charged on the likes of personal insolvency deals (PIAs) and debt settlement arrangements (DSAs) that are put in place through the Insolvency Service.
The 23% VAT rate adds up to €460 to the €2,000 fees charged by an insolvency practitioner.
The tax can be as high as €2,000 for a more complicated insolvency arrangement.
No VAT is charged on similar debt deals in the UK.
Another change being looked at is allowing the insolvency service to put in place a protective certificate (PC).
At the moment this is the function of the courts.
A PC is issued by the court which offers a borrower protection from legal proceedings by creditors while they apply for a formal debt deal. It usually stays in place for 70 days.
“This change would help to make the Insolvency Service operate on a less formal basis, something many practitioners have been calling for,” a source close to the discussions said.
The Government is also looking at a massive expansion of the mortgage-to-rent scheme.
This is where people with no hope of repaying their mortgage arrears and getting back on track have their home bought by a charity or a local authority.
Banks are forced to sell the property at the current market value. Any residual owed on the mortgage is written off by the lender.
Families no longer own their home or have any financial interest in it but they can remain there.
Figures given to the Dáil last week by Finance Minister Michael Noonan show that just 85 mortgage-to-rent arrangements have been put in place since 2013.
No costings were provided for the 85 deals, but it is estimated the combined cost was less than €13m, meaning the scheme is an efficient method of solving the growing social housing crisis, experts said.
At present, the scheme is confined to people whose homes have a market value of less than €220,000 in the Dublin area, and less than €180,000 in the rest of the State.
A massive opening up of the scheme would see these thresholds radically altered to allow far more people to qualify.
Reducing the bankruptcy period to one year would give more bargaining power to families in financial distress, but there is reluctance to go this route within Fine Gael.
Mr Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation is due to meet Department of Finance officials this week to discuss how to avoid mass repossessions.
Among the proposals he will make is to change the voting thresholds for banks in creditor meetings where debt deals get the go-ahead.
This would lessen the power of banks to sink arrangements that form part of the State’s Insolvency Service.
St. Patrick’s Day from Space. An Astronaut Spies Ireland from Orbit
Even astronauts in space can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
NASA astronaut Terry Virts beamed down two photos from the International Space Station in honor of the Irish holiday today (March 17). The images show Ireland — the “Emerald Isle” — as seen from space.
“#HappyStPatrickDay with best wishes from the #E43 [space station’s Expedition 43] crew,” Virtswrote on Twitter. “From space you can see the ‘Emerald Isle’ is very green!”
Virts also posted a little game via Twitter today for the holiday, asking his followers to guess which of four images shows Boston, Massachusetts, an area of the United States known for its St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“Where did I pAAAk my CAAAAr,” Virts wrote on Twitter, parroting a Boston accent. “#HappyStPatrickDay! #ISSPlayBall fans, which image is #Boston from the @Space_Station?”
Plenty of astronauts have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day from space. Irish-American astronaut Cady Coleman played a 100-year old flute as a tribute to the holiday in 2011, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield posted a series of updated on Twitter for the holiday in 2013. Hadfield even recorded a cover of the Irish classic “Danny Boy” and sent it down from orbit.
“From high above the world to the Irish everywhere, happy St. Patrick’s Day,” Hadfield said at the beginning of his “Danny Boy” recording. You can listen to Hadfield’s song via SoundCloud.
For St. Patrick’s Day, NASA astronaut Terry Virts tweeted this photo of Ireland taken on the International Space Station on March 17, 2015
European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov join Virts on the space station. The three crewmembers just said goodbye to three other spaceflyers who landed back on Earth last week, and they will gain three new crewmembers by the end of the month.
NASA’s Scott Kelly and cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka will fly up to the station on March 27. Kelly and Kornienko will actually spend one year aboard the space station, marking the orbiting outpost’s first year-long mission.
NASA astronaut Terry Virts beamed down two photos from the International Space Station in honor of the Irish holiday today (March 17). The images show Ireland — the “Emerald Isle” — as seen from space.
“#HappyStPatrickDay with best wishes from the #E43 [space station’s Expedition 43] crew,” Virtswrote on Twitter. “From space you can see the ‘Emerald Isle’ is very green!”
Virts also posted a little game via Twitter today for the holiday, asking his followers to guess which of four images shows Boston, Massachusetts, an area of the United States known for its St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“Where did I pAAAk my CAAAAr,” Virts wrote on Twitter, parroting a Boston accent. “#HappyStPatrickDay! #ISSPlayBall fans, which image is #Boston from the @Space_Station?”
Plenty of astronauts have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day from space. Irish-American astronaut Cady Coleman played a 100-year old flute as a tribute to the holiday in 2011, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield posted a series of updated on Twitter for the holiday in 2013. Hadfield even recorded a cover of the Irish classic “Danny Boy” and sent it down from orbit.
“From high above the world to the Irish everywhere, happy St. Patrick’s Day,” Hadfield said at the beginning of his “Danny Boy” recording. You can listen to Hadfield’s song via SoundCloud.
For St. Patrick’s Day, NASA astronaut Terry Virts tweeted this photo of Ireland taken on the International Space Station on March 17, 2015
European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov join Virts on the space station. The three crewmembers just said goodbye to three other spaceflyers who landed back on Earth last week, and they will gain three new crewmembers by the end of the month.
NASA’s Scott Kelly and cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka will fly up to the station on March 27. Kelly and Kornienko will actually spend one year aboard the space station, marking the orbiting outpost’s first year-long mission.
Some famous people you probably never knew had green Irish roots
3 OF THE GREATEST IRISH ROOTS WERE: ROBERT DE NIRO, WALT DISNEY & MUHAMMED ALI
The Irish have flung themselves around the world for as long as we care to remember. And we have the proven genealogy to prove it.
In celebration of St Patrick’s Day we have a look at 9 people who you probably never knew had Irish roots.
Kurt Cobain
In 1993, Kurt Cobain did an interview with a magazine in which he discussed his Irish roots.
“I never really knew about my ancestors until this year, when I learned that the name Cobain was Irish”, he said. “My parents had never bothered to find that stuff out. I found out by looking through phone books throughout America for names that were similar to mine. I couldn’t find any Cobains at all, so I started calling Coburns. I found this one lady in San Francisco who had been researching our family history for years.
“Actually [the name] was Cobain, but the Coburns screwed it up when they came over. They came from County Cork, which is a really weird coincidence, because when we toured Ireland, we played in Cork and the entire day I walked around in a daze. I’d never felt more spiritual in my life. It was the weirdest feeling and I have a friend who was with me who could testify to this I was almost in tears the whole day. Since that tour, which was about two years ago, I’ve had a sense that I was from Ireland.2
Muhammed Ali
The legendary heavy-weight boxer’s great grandfather was born in Ennis in County Clare. In 2009 Ali traveled to Ennis to explore his Irish ancestry. The small town in was home to Abe Grady, Ali’s great-grandfather, who left Ireland for the United States in the 1840s during the Great Famine.
Olivia Wilde 
Wilde’s father is Irish journalist Andrew Cockburn, whose father was a left-wing journalist and novellist who eft England during World War 2. The actress, who also took her stage name from writer Oscar Wilde, used to spend her summers in Ardmore in County Waterford.
Barack Obama
One of the most powerful men on the planet has ancestry on his mother’s side. Obama’s roots in Ireland go back to around 1850, when Falmouth Kearney, a 19-year-old son of a local shoemaker, left Moneygall to begin a new life in the United States. U.S. Census records from 1860 show that Falmouth, a farmhand, his wife Charlotte and several children were living in Deerfield, Ohio. Obama is the great-great grandson of Falmouth Kearney’s youngest daughter, Mary Ann.
Walt Disney
The enigmatic animator has Irish roots on his father’s side. His great-grandfather, Arundel Elias Disney, emigrated to the United States from Gowran, County Kilkenny, where he was born in 1801. In 1832 Arundel Elias Disney married Maria Swan, who gave birth to their son Kepple, Walt Disney’s grandfather, on November 2 of the same year.
Billy the Kid
The notorious gunslinger, whose real name was Henry McCarthy, was born in New York to two Irish immigrant parents. His mother’s name was Catherine McCarthy and his father’s name was Patrick McCarthy. They travelled to America
Robert de Niro
Yea that’s right; the greatest ‘Italian’ face on screen actually has Irish roots. Three of his four grandparents are Irish. And the actor even hitched his way around Ireland as a young chap. “I hitchhiked from Dublin to Galway and took the ferry to the Aran Islands, then I went down through the south”, he said. “People gave me blankets for sleeping outside and I had breakfast with them in the morning. They were very friendly.”
Jimi Hendrix
The greatest guitar player that ever lived was part Irish on his mother’s side. Jimi’s mother Nora Moore was the daughter of a Cherokee Indian woman and an Irishman.
Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison of The Doors was also part-Irish, and his bandmate Ray Manzarek once said: “It was Jimbo — the alter-ego of Jim Morrison, that dark, Irish drunk — who took himself to Paris. And Jimbo killed my friend Jim.”
In celebration of St Patrick’s Day we have a look at 9 people who you probably never knew had Irish roots.
Kurt Cobain
In 1993, Kurt Cobain did an interview with a magazine in which he discussed his Irish roots.
“I never really knew about my ancestors until this year, when I learned that the name Cobain was Irish”, he said. “My parents had never bothered to find that stuff out. I found out by looking through phone books throughout America for names that were similar to mine. I couldn’t find any Cobains at all, so I started calling Coburns. I found this one lady in San Francisco who had been researching our family history for years.
“Actually [the name] was Cobain, but the Coburns screwed it up when they came over. They came from County Cork, which is a really weird coincidence, because when we toured Ireland, we played in Cork and the entire day I walked around in a daze. I’d never felt more spiritual in my life. It was the weirdest feeling and I have a friend who was with me who could testify to this I was almost in tears the whole day. Since that tour, which was about two years ago, I’ve had a sense that I was from Ireland.2
Muhammed Ali
The legendary heavy-weight boxer’s great grandfather was born in Ennis in County Clare. In 2009 Ali traveled to Ennis to explore his Irish ancestry. The small town in was home to Abe Grady, Ali’s great-grandfather, who left Ireland for the United States in the 1840s during the Great Famine.
Olivia Wilde
Wilde’s father is Irish journalist Andrew Cockburn, whose father was a left-wing journalist and novellist who eft England during World War 2. The actress, who also took her stage name from writer Oscar Wilde, used to spend her summers in Ardmore in County Waterford.
Barack Obama
One of the most powerful men on the planet has ancestry on his mother’s side. Obama’s roots in Ireland go back to around 1850, when Falmouth Kearney, a 19-year-old son of a local shoemaker, left Moneygall to begin a new life in the United States. U.S. Census records from 1860 show that Falmouth, a farmhand, his wife Charlotte and several children were living in Deerfield, Ohio. Obama is the great-great grandson of Falmouth Kearney’s youngest daughter, Mary Ann.
Walt Disney
The enigmatic animator has Irish roots on his father’s side. His great-grandfather, Arundel Elias Disney, emigrated to the United States from Gowran, County Kilkenny, where he was born in 1801. In 1832 Arundel Elias Disney married Maria Swan, who gave birth to their son Kepple, Walt Disney’s grandfather, on November 2 of the same year.
Billy the Kid
The notorious gunslinger, whose real name was Henry McCarthy, was born in New York to two Irish immigrant parents. His mother’s name was Catherine McCarthy and his father’s name was Patrick McCarthy. They travelled to America
Robert de Niro
Yea that’s right; the greatest ‘Italian’ face on screen actually has Irish roots. Three of his four grandparents are Irish. And the actor even hitched his way around Ireland as a young chap. “I hitchhiked from Dublin to Galway and took the ferry to the Aran Islands, then I went down through the south”, he said. “People gave me blankets for sleeping outside and I had breakfast with them in the morning. They were very friendly.”
Jimi Hendrix
The greatest guitar player that ever lived was part Irish on his mother’s side. Jimi’s mother Nora Moore was the daughter of a Cherokee Indian woman and an Irishman.
Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison of The Doors was also part-Irish, and his bandmate Ray Manzarek once said: “It was Jimbo — the alter-ego of Jim Morrison, that dark, Irish drunk — who took himself to Paris. And Jimbo killed my friend Jim.”
Ryanair approves new plans for transatlantic flights
Irish no-frills airline Ryanair on Monday confirmed its board has approved plans to start flying low-cost transatlantic routes in the next five years.
Proposed transatlantic fares would start from as little as £10 ($14, 13.99 euros) one-way, although only some seats would be available at that price.
“The board of Ryanair has approved the business plans for future growth, including transatlantic,” the carrier said in a statement.
The Irish-based airline said it was talking to manufacturers about sourcing long-haul aircraft that would fly between up to 14 European and US cities.
The European bases would include Dublin, London Stansted, Cologne and Berlin. In the United States, destinations would include New York, Boston and Washington.
The airline’s chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs has previously said that a transatlantic service would operate under a separate brand.
“The business plan is there but it’s dependent on attaining viable long haul aircraft and we estimate that’s four to five years away,” Ryanair said.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has long-talked about starting a transatlantic service, but the plans have never got off the ground.
“European consumers want lower cost travel to the USA and the same for Americans coming to Europe. We see it as a logical development in the European market,” the airline added.
Commentators have said the plan will depend on Ryanair’s ability to source aircraft at a suitable price.
“It is unclear how quickly Ryanair might be able to get hold of enough aircraft? Probably at least 20-30 initially? but it is hard to see the service operating before 2019-20, at the earliest,” said Cliff Taylor, a business commentator in The Irish Times.
Ryanair, which turned 30 this year and is the largest airline in Europe by passenger numbers, forecasts profits between 840-850 million euros for its financial year which runs until the end of this month.
Proposed transatlantic fares would start from as little as £10 ($14, 13.99 euros) one-way, although only some seats would be available at that price.
“The board of Ryanair has approved the business plans for future growth, including transatlantic,” the carrier said in a statement.
The Irish-based airline said it was talking to manufacturers about sourcing long-haul aircraft that would fly between up to 14 European and US cities.
The European bases would include Dublin, London Stansted, Cologne and Berlin. In the United States, destinations would include New York, Boston and Washington.
The airline’s chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs has previously said that a transatlantic service would operate under a separate brand.
“The business plan is there but it’s dependent on attaining viable long haul aircraft and we estimate that’s four to five years away,” Ryanair said.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has long-talked about starting a transatlantic service, but the plans have never got off the ground.
“European consumers want lower cost travel to the USA and the same for Americans coming to Europe. We see it as a logical development in the European market,” the airline added.
Commentators have said the plan will depend on Ryanair’s ability to source aircraft at a suitable price.
“It is unclear how quickly Ryanair might be able to get hold of enough aircraft? Probably at least 20-30 initially? but it is hard to see the service operating before 2019-20, at the earliest,” said Cliff Taylor, a business commentator in The Irish Times.
Ryanair, which turned 30 this year and is the largest airline in Europe by passenger numbers, forecasts profits between 840-850 million euros for its financial year which runs until the end of this month.
The UK’s first big hedgehog sanctuary
The first large-scale hedgehog sanctuary in the UK is being opened today in Solihull, West Midlands.
The 90-hectare refuge has been created by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust in response to a crashing hedgehog population.
The aim is for it to be the model for hedgehog conservation across the whole of Britain.
In the 1950s, 36 million of the animals used to snuffle in UK gardens. There may be less than a million now.
Funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, the conservation area stretches across a nature reserve, a public park and the surrounding streets.
More than 100 “footprint tunnels” have been created to show where the hedgehogs have been. Not only will they be placed in the wide green spaces, but also in the gardens of willing local people. Hidden cameras are being installed and volunteer “wildlife guardians” will help to protect the spaces.
According to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, the most important part is involving the community.
Simon Thompson is the organisation’s hedgehog officer: “We’re asking the local people to really get involved with the scientific survey.
“We’re going to be looking at distribution using the footprint tunnels and abundance via a capture, mark and recapture scheme.
“Hedgehogs will be trapped overnight and in the morning we will give them a unique colour code. We’ll aim to recapture them again, and from the results we will be able to estimate the population numbers in the area.”
Brian Llewellyn cuts a hole in his fence to allow the hedgehogs to roam across his garden
Hedgehogs need to roam to forage for worms and insects and to find shelter. An adult male can cover more than three kilometres a night. More often than not, their path is blocked by solid garden boundaries.
At the request of the conservationists, some Solihull residents within the reserve are also now starting to adopt the most simple and effective way of helping a hedgehog. They are creating wildlife corridors by making a small hole – no bigger than the size of a CD – in their garden walls or fences.
Brian Llewellyn has just cut the reserve’s first new wildlife corridor – in his garden fence. “I have been living on housing estates for many years now and I had never seen a hedgehog until recently. I would just love to be able to allow them to travel around the back gardens here, which they need to be able to do. It’s so simple. Anyone can do it, you just need a saw.”
Sally Marjoram runs the Solihull Happy Hogs Hedgehog Rescue.
She commented: “This is a double-edged sword. I think it’s really sad that we have to go to these lengths, and that people go around their daily business without realizing how they are affecting wildlife.
“Because once it’s gone, it’s gone. At the moment the future is very very bleak, but it’s not too late to turn it around. People only need to do little things to make a big difference. This reserve is an amazing start.”
The first large-scale hedgehog sanctuary in the UK is being opened today in Solihull, West Midlands.
The 90-hectare refuge has been created by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust in response to a crashing hedgehog population.
The aim is for it to be the model for hedgehog conservation across the whole of Britain.
In the 1950s, 36 million of the animals used to snuffle in UK gardens. There may be less than a million now.
Funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, the conservation area stretches across a nature reserve, a public park and the surrounding streets.
More than 100 “footprint tunnels” have been created to show where the hedgehogs have been. Not only will they be placed in the wide green spaces, but also in the gardens of willing local people. Hidden cameras are being installed and volunteer “wildlife guardians” will help to protect the spaces.
According to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, the most important part is involving the community.
Simon Thompson is the organisation’s hedgehog officer: “We’re asking the local people to really get involved with the scientific survey.
“We’re going to be looking at distribution using the footprint tunnels and abundance via a capture, mark and recapture scheme.
“Hedgehogs will be trapped overnight and in the morning we will give them a unique colour code. We’ll aim to recapture them again, and from the results we will be able to estimate the population numbers in the area.”
Brian Llewellyn cuts a hole in his fence to allow the hedgehogs to roam across his garden
Hedgehogs need to roam to forage for worms and insects and to find shelter. An adult male can cover more than three kilometres a night. More often than not, their path is blocked by solid garden boundaries.
At the request of the conservationists, some Solihull residents within the reserve are also now starting to adopt the most simple and effective way of helping a hedgehog. They are creating wildlife corridors by making a small hole – no bigger than the size of a CD – in their garden walls or fences.
Brian Llewellyn has just cut the reserve’s first new wildlife corridor – in his garden fence. “I have been living on housing estates for many years now and I had never seen a hedgehog until recently. I would just love to be able to allow them to travel around the back gardens here, which they need to be able to do. It’s so simple. Anyone can do it, you just need a saw.”
Sally Marjoram runs the Solihull Happy Hogs Hedgehog Rescue.
She commented: “This is a double-edged sword. I think it’s really sad that we have to go to these lengths, and that people go around their daily business without realizing how they are affecting wildlife.
“Because once it’s gone, it’s gone. At the moment the future is very very bleak, but it’s not too late to turn it around. People only need to do little things to make a big difference. This reserve is an amazing start.”
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