Children and councillors from Merryhills Primary School joined the Berkeley team at the Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) centre in Trent Park for a special hedgehog awareness workshop.
The pupils gathered in the wildlife classroom on site – constructed and donated by Berkeley to the charity in 2019 – to hear WRAS founders Barry and June Smitherman explain how to help protect hedgehogs in the wild.
The pupils created their own hedgehog awareness posters and helped Berkeley’s Senior Sustainability Advisor Victoria Chater-Lea locate a good spot to place a new hedgehog house, which provides valuable, safe shelter for the animals as they travel. The children also enjoyed a visit to some of the rescued animals who live or are recuperating at the centre and before departing, were gifted their own toy hedgehog and a Berkeley certificate.
Victoria Chater-Lea, Senior Sustainability Advisor at Berkeley commented: “It was fantastic to meet with the children and staff from Merryhills Primary School and take part in such an insightful workshop with the incredible team at WRAS. Hedgehogs are sadly in danger of becoming extinct in years to come if we don’t take action; everyone can make a difference, through the provision of hedgehog houses in our gardens or creating small holes in our fences to let hedgehogs pass through.
“At our Trent Park development, as part of our commitment to enhancing biodiversity, we’re doing everything we can to help. As well as supporting the fantastic work of the WRAS, we’ve volunteered the gardens of our new homes as a safe place to reintroduce hedgehogs back into the wild, and the provision of flower beds provides somewhere for them to quietly forage for food. We’re also introducing hedgehog highways, a small hole at the bottom of the garden fences across Trent Park.”
The landscaping around the classroom was designed and delivered by Berkeley’s apprentices and forms part of the development’s beautiful, tranquil setting. Trent Park comprises traditionally designed new and converted apartments and houses set in beautifully restored grounds.
For more information, call the Trent Park sales team on 020 3797 8426.