At just 12.5 centimetres wide and 19 centimetres tall, it’s a home of miniature proportions. 
 
But it is ideal for a family of tiny, sleepy dormice. 
 
And Anglian Water have built dozens of them to help protect Britain’s endangered hazel dormouse population from extinction. 
 
These “dormice boxes” sit along the planned route of the most southern 68km section of a new multi-million-pound water main network, one of Europe’s largest environmental projects. 
 
It is the water company’s flagship project and the largest drinking water project the UK has seen for a generation. Hundreds of kilometres of underground, interconnecting pipelines, stretching from North Lincolnshire to Essex will move water from wetter to drier areas. 
 
As important as the network itself, Anglian Water is committed to leaving a long-lasting green and social legacy along the route.  
 
Ecologist Lewis York, who is overseeing the work for Anglian Water, said: “We have started installing the dormice boxes where their populations have been identified. The boxes sit at chest height, ideally on a tree or shrub with a stem. 
 
“They aren’t for monitoring purposes, but simply as a safe location to for dormice we find during our initial vegetation work.”  
 
With their soft brown fur, long tail and big black eyes, hazel dormice are exceptionally cute, but in the last two decades their number has halved and they have disappeared from 17 English counties. 
 
Their decline is driven by a loss of quality woodland habitat, but insufficient connecting hedgerows and climate change are factors. 
 
The tiny creatures – usually about 7.5 centimetres long – spend most of the day asleep. At night they climb into nearby trees in search of nuts, berries and insects. 
 
Lewis added: “In total, we plan to install about 70 of the boxes. They will be checked for the duration of the vegetation work and our data reported to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) as part of the project licence requirements.” 
 
A planning application for the 68km section – the most southern, which will link Bury St Edmunds to Colchester and Ipswich – was submitted in December.  
 
It is hoped pipelaying will start in the summer, but ecology surveys and limited vegetation removal have already taken place.  
 
Work on a 34km section of the new water main network in Lincolnshire is almost complete. Pipelaying on sections to the north and south of it are due to start in spring. 
  
Elsewhere, the water company has donated 2,000 books to 11 primary schools along the pipeline route, built special 'commuter' fences to help bats, joined forces with Toadwatch to protect under-threat amphibians and donated life-saving defibrillators to communities. Thousands of trees are expected to be planted and new areas of grassland created along the route, too.  
 
Ryan Rogan, who manages the teams delivering the new water main network across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex, said: “Last summer’s unprecedented heatwave highlighted the need for investment in this kind of work.  
  
"The east of England is one of the driest areas in the UK and has a rapidly growing population, which is why we've spent many years developing and implementing our plans to combat water shortages and increase resilience.   
  
“Simply put, without the new water main grid, demand for water will outstrip supply and parts of the east of England could run out of water as soon as 2030. The importance of our work really cannot be underestimated.”  
 
For more information please contact the Press Office on 0871 677 0123. 
 
About Anglian Water 
 
Anglian Water supplies drinking water to 4.3 million customers across the East of England and collects and treats used water from over 6 million people. We operate within the largest geographical region of England and Wales. 
 
Water is our business. It’s our job to handle it with care and balance the needs of our customers with those of the environment around us. 
 
Our ethos is ‘Love Every Drop’, because it’s what we do. Every drop of water is precious, and we believe it’s everyone’s responsibility to look after it. We’re constantly discovering new ways to keep ahead of a changing world, by planning for the future, and exploring new ideas to meet our customers’ individual needs today and tomorrow. 
 
The dedicated SPA webpages are here.