RED Squirrels running the risk of being mown down by vehicles can now cross the road in safety by scampering along a 20-metre high rope bridge as the traffic passes below, reports Ellis Butcher.

Following a spate of red squirrel fatalities, the crossing has gone up across the B6259, a road leading to Kirkby Stephen through the rugged Mallerstang valley.

The device is in the village of Outhgill, an area rich with reds and one which squirrel saviours Red Alert North West deemed an official refuge site.

Warning signs have also gone up along the valley leading to Outhgill, as part of the effort to conserve the reds.

The design of the bridge has been a major project of the Mallerstang Red Squirrel Protection Committee - formed a year ago this month.

Led by chairwoman Mrs Annie Hamilton-Gibney, the committee brought together valley residents concerned about the increasing number of red roadkills.

The bridge was installed free-of-charge by Paul Holroyd and Nick Venning, of Eden Conservation, while Bruce Baldwin, of Lux Traffic Management, volunteered to control the traffic while the tricky business of erecting the bridge took place.

The rope was spliced in Gateshead by Nationwide Splicing and Rope services, and consists of two, 27-metre long ropes with a smaller rope zig-zagging between.

It stretches between a spruce on one side of the road to an ash on the other, on property belonging to area land owner Janet Davies.

To entice squirrels to use the ladder, guide ropes have been smeared with peanut butter and there are feeding boxes on either side, designed by committee members Simon Etheridge and David White.

Mrs Hamilton-Gibney said: "We hope that once our squirrels have established the bridge as a safe route, they will teach their young, and so it will help generations of squirrels to come."

She added: "We were becoming increasingly aware of the fact that our valley provides a hugely significant corridor from the southern grey squirrel dominated region and the remaining red area to the north. We came to realise that protecting the lives of our red squirrels could help maintain the population in the region and reduce the relentless onslaught of the greys."

As well as a bridge, a plot of land in Outhgill will now be designated as a squirrel protection area with a bench and feeding boxes installed, and the planting of squirrel friendly trees such as hazel, cob nuts and hawthorn.

The bridge project has been funded by donations from valley residents, the sale of red squirrel cards from Red Alert NW, donations from Cumbria County Council, arranged by Coun Tim Stoddard; a £200 Neighbourhood Development Grant; £255 from the North Eastern and Cumbrian Co-op Dividend Fund and £100 from the Conservation Foundation Parish Pump Priming Award.