Ideal homes at new estate ... for water voles

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is working with land management experts Greenbelt Group on land at Westwinds, near Ackworth.

The River Went around Featherstone and Pontefract is one of the last remaining water vole strongholds in West Yorkshire but has been affected by flooding and cold winters.

The work is recreating ponds and wetlands next to the Westwinds housing scheme.

The work is designed to allow water vole colonies upstream and downstream on Went Beck to join up.

A project spokesman, Nick Simms, said the water vole population had become fragmented “which makes it harder for the voles to recover following adverse weather conditions such as flooding and harsh winters. It also makes them more susceptible to predation from animals such as the introduced American mink.”

The Westwinds project is part of the Living Went Project which is aiming to improve habitats on the river.

Water voles have declined by 97 per cent over the last 60 years.