BARN owls are being given brand new homes across Crewe and Nantwich in a bid to halt the decline in the numbers of the birds.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust, British Waterways, the borough council and local landowners are working together to increase the number of barn owls.

This month representatives from each group, pictured, teamed up with local Barn Owl Groups to install three new barn owl boxes along the Shropshire Union Canal in the borough.

Two were put in trees and the third on a pole but the locations are being kept secret to prevent the birds being disturbed.

They were bought with a grant from Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council which has agreed to have a further three boxes installed in a separate area.

Chris Lawton, borough landscape and countryside officer, said: "Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council has a long-term commitment to improve the environment for the benefit of wildlife and is especially keen to help rare species to increase in number.

"We are pleased to be at the forefront of nature conservation in Cheshire."

In 1932 a nationwide survey showed 239 pairs in Cheshire, today the number could be as low as 10 pairs.

The small mammals which the owls feed on live in rough grassland which is in short supply in Cheshire.

This means the owls hunt along road verges and as many as one third of the young owls born each year are killed on roads.

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