by Chris Hunter
chunter@thekmgroup.co.uk

Is it an elf climbing frame? A hammock for snakes? Perhaps it’s a telecommunication system for woodland creatures, or a braking mechanism for runaway buses.

The truth is almost as bizarre; it’s a bridge for dormice – and just one of several fantastic creations that appear to be transforming the new Birling Grange, in Leybourne, into less of a housing development, more of a mysterious woodland world stumbled upon by a daydreaming girl called Alice.

Also to be found on the development, set on the site of the former Leybourne Grange Hospital, is a bat house and an underground vole road.

Of course, there is a sound logic behind the Wind in the Willows style set-up, as housebuilders Taylor Wimpey were granted planning permission only on the condition they protected wildlife whose habitat was destroyed by the development.

They are confident the 15m high wire tube bridge spanning the road into the development will be used by the dormice. Regional sales director for Taylor Wimpey, Paula Carter, says the company is doing “all we can to accommodate our animal neighbours”.

Some will question whether the tiny creatures will bother to perform the high-wire act necessary to cross the bridge, which in human terms would be the equivalent of climbing a rope to a point roughly the height of the Eiffel Tower before crossing a chasm as wide as the Dartford Crossing.

Might they simply choose to scurry across the small road instead? The Kent Messenger could not find any dormice willing to comment publicly on the matter, but Kent Wildlife Trust’s head of conservation, Richard Moyse, is confident it will be a success.

He said research showed dormice, which prefer to stay safely in the branches of trees, will use bridges of this type and that the construction was “likely to be of value in ensuring that the local population of dormice stays linked up”.

Only large areas of woodland – or areas of smaller woodlands linked by hedgerows or scrub – can support viable dormouse populations, he explained, and the gradual fragmentation of woodlands is considered one of the reasons that dormice have become rare.

Although he praised the housing managers for the animal-friendly additions, he said the Trust would also encourage them to “actively manage the woodland to encourage dormice and other woodland wildlife.”

If all goes to plan, the dormice will get to the bridge using ropes and climbing plants leading from the nearby woodland canopy and floor, while it is hoped water voles will be equally happy to use the tunnels installed either side of the new culvert to Leybourne Stream, and bats will take up residence in homes built in the grounds of the former hospital and specially converted garage lofts.

So while some might see Taylor Wimpey’s animal homes as an example of ecology draining the economy, to a dormouse, the new bridge is a highly functional roadway, communications device - and perhaps a life-saver.
Whether or not the dormouse bridge will come to be used as something akin to an elf climbing frame remains to be seen.