AN MP has backed a campaign to help restore the hedgehog population.

The Hedgehog Street campaign, a joint initiative between the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, wants to reverse the decline of over a third of its hedgehog population in the past decade.

The campaign aims to raise awareness, research hedgehog behaviour and ecology, train land owners in hedgehog conservation, and lobby developers and the government to support the conservation of hedgehog.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson gave his support after the campaign was taken up in Parliament by Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling MP.

Mr Stephenson is now calling for residents to become Hedgehog Champions by putting out food and making holes in fences to link up gardens and green spaces, making ‘hedgehog highways’.

He said: “We can really make a difference for hedgehogs and return them to their previous state”.