I used to have hedgehogs living in the garden that I would see every night and share photos and videos of regularly: there were at least three different individuals including the named resident female Henrietta. This was until landlord of the neighbouring property decided to clear their entire garden— all of the trees, all the shrubs, all the bramble, everything was torn up and thrown out. They also tore down the shared fence between our gardens which had been an old wooden fence covered in ivy, with plenty of gaps for the hedgehogs to pass through. They built a brand new 6ft tall impenetrable fence. The construction of this fence may seem minor but it means that wildlife like hedgehogs can no longer pass through. The removal of the plants from that garden means that the hedgehogs lost a huge part of their foraging and living area. I have not seen a single hedgehog in our garden since the neighbour made these changes. I don’t know if it’s because they can’t get in past the new fences, because they were scared away, or possibly because they were killed in the renovations. I look for Henrietta often and wonder what happened to her. Did she get fenced out of our garden permenantly? Did she get taken away with the branches and leaf litter? Did she get fenced inside the neighbours garden and find herself unable to get back out? I’ll probably never know. I’ve made some gaps in the new fence now and though I wait for the hedgehogs to return, it has been several months now and I still haven’t seen any. Hedgehogs are a Red List species in the UK, yet landowners seemingly have no requirement to consider them whatsoever in any renovations they make. I pleaded with the neighbouring landlord (via some very patronising estate agents) to leave some habitat intact. They ignored me.