TOAD patrollers in Warminster are hoping to close a road next spring to help protect hundreds of amphibians from being squashed by vehicles.

They are delighted that Warminster Town Council has agreed to set up a meeting with Wiltshire Council Highways.

They want to discuss closing Smallbrook Road to vehicular traffic next Spring and turning it into a safe route for walkers, horse-riders, cyclists and children going to and from school.

Since February, Warminster’s toads have been on the move to their ancestral breeding ponds in the Smallbrook Meadows Nature Reserve, oblivious of the danger from traffic using Smallbrook Road.

Harriet James, of Sustainable Warminster, says the Warminster amphibians are in danger of extinction unless they can be rescued and their numbers recorded.

There are now more than 60 volunteers, including nine children, who go out with buckets to help save them.

Mrs James said: “Each year, hundreds of toads are killed by traffic on the road. It is estimated that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on roads in the UK every year.

"Toad populations naturally have many more males than females.  Each female can lay several thousand eggs.

“The death of 400 females on Smallbrook Road recorded over the last three years will have had a dramatic negative effect on the numbers of new toadlets. There will have been many hundreds more unrecorded deaths.

“In the UK toads have declined since the 1980s due to habitat loss, deaths on roads, fungal disease and chemical pollution in water.

“This year the toad patrollers have been collecting DNA samples from toads and frogs to help with a research project on genetic diversity run by the University of Wolverhampton.

The Smallbrook Toad Patrol area is one of hundreds registered with the Department of Transport as a toad migratory route.

Mrs James added: “Wiltshire Council agreed a recent reduction in the Smallbrook Road speed limit to 30mph and Warminster Town Council gave the Toad Patrol a grant for triangular toad warning signs.

“However, this has not reduced the deaths from cars using the ‘rat run’ route along Smallbrook Road in the evenings.

“The Toad Patrollers are hoping that anyone who usually drives that way after dusk might consider taking a route through the centre of town instead. Just one car can cause multiple deaths no matter what the speed.

“Ultimately, Smallbrook’s toads are likely to become extinct unless Smallbrook Road can be closed. This might seem like an extreme measure, but there would be multiple benefits to people as well as wildlife."