Volunteers join the toad patrol

More than 100 toads were helped to get safely to their breeding ground by a team of volunteers.

Barnby Road, Newark, is one of only nine toad patrol sites in the country registered by the Department of Transport.

Resident Nadia Ming and a friend started helping migrating toads to cross the road about 30 years ago.

There are now about a dozen volunteers involved with the Barnby Road toad patrol.

They go out from dusk each evening for about two hours, collecting toads in buckets and taking them to a pond near Barnby Road Academy.

Nadia said they had been out since Friday when she noticed toads had started to move from an allotment site to get to the pond.

“We try to get them before they actually get on the road,” she said.

On Friday they collected 37, there were 41 on Saturday and 36 on Sunday.

Nadia said when the group started it regularly helped about 800 toads, but numbers have fallen as the Barnby Road area has been developed and their habitat has dwindled.