Staff at Ely rail station raised money to help a local hedgehog sanctuary after receiving a hedgehog house for their new station wildlife garden.
Keeping-hedgehogs-safe---Wisbech-Standard
They raised £147.50 for Ryston Rachel's Hedgehog Hotel, a self-funded hedgehog rescue in Downham Market which has been rescuing and rehabilitating hedgehogs for 10 years.
Greater Angila staff formally opened the hedgehog hotel, named ‘Tiggywinkle Towers’, earlier this month and held a ‘guess the name of the hedgehog’ competition fundraiser.
The hotel was made and donated to the station garden by Adrian Sutterby, one of Greater Anglia’s station adoption volunteers who helps to look after March station.
The new station wildlife garden will help to support local wildlife including insects and small invertebrates.
It also features an insect house handmade by Ely station team member, William Ashworth, from old pallets that would otherwise have been thrown away.
The garden was created by Ely station staff led by train dispatcher Jade Wilkinson, who said, “We started off making a wildlife garden during lockdown when things were really quiet around the station.
"Someone donated a bug hotel, which we called ‘Buggenham Palace’ and then we started thinking of other things we could make for our local wildlife so we purchased a bird house for a little robin who kept visiting.
"Then we came up with the idea of a hedgehog house too and as it was being made we actually saw a hedgehog in our wildlife garden and thought he must be waiting for his new house."
Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s customer and community engagement manager who leads the company’s station adoption initiative, said: “It’s wonderful to see the staff at Ely station working hand in hand with one of our station adopters to create this lovely new wildlife haven.
"It is hoped it will have a positive effect in protecting the area’s vulnerable species and improve biodiversity locally.
In a recent survey, Greater Anglia station adopters reported a range of creatures visiting their stations.
These included many different types of butterflies as well as bees, slow worms, bats, foxes, deer and varieties of birds, recording over 200 different species.
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