A popular road leading to Richmond Park is reopening after nearly a month-long closure due to migrating toads.
For the last four years, for an increasing time period each year, Kingston Council has closed Church Road near Ham Gate to ‘allow the amphibians to cross the road safely as they make their way to a nearby pond to breed.’
The closure was outlined in an initial letter sent to local residents in 2013 to inform them of the disruption, which has subsequently continued every year.
Now stretching from March 3rd-31st, the closure means all motorized traffic is blocked from the road and cyclists are told to ride with caution as ‘mass toad migration’ is set to commence.
According to a recent study carried out by the University of Zurich based on data collected from volunteers in the UK, the number of common frogs has declined by 68% in the past 30 years across the UK, with 20 tonnes of toads killed on the roads each year.
Despite these figures, a local resident told me how ‘in five years of cycling along Church Road on my daily commute, I haven’t seen a single toad, let alone when the road is closed for migration season. It's madness.’
However, specifically in the South East, the toad population has dropped off by more than 50 per cent, according to the charity Froglife which aims to put an end to this depletion.
Run by a series of volunteers and a team of experienced staff, the charity delivers conservation and education projects across the UK to help toads and various other endangered amphibians. The dangers they are protected from include: loss of habitat, pollution and disease.
Jonathan Fray, a highways engineer from Richmond, started conducting toad patrols nearly five years ago and, after initial success with volunteers, managed to rescue 306 toads by picking them off Church Road and carrying them to safety in buckets in the first year. Similar results are projected for this year’s migration period.
Church Road re-opens on April 1.
Harry Vincent, Hampton School
