WILTSHIRE Wildlife Trust has welcomed plans by the Government to increase legal protection for water voles.

The water vole is one of Britain's most threatened species and a national survey has found that the numbers have dropped from 8 million to 750,000, although Wiltshire is bucking the national trend.

At the moment people can only be prosecuted if they damage or destroy a water vole's place of shelter but the Government is planning to give the animal full legal protection which would make it illegal to kill and injure a water vole or trade products derived from them.

The Government is consulting on this proposal and if approved the amendment to the law is due to be in place later this year.

The wildlife trusts and other conservation bodies have been campaigning for years for the water vole to be given full legal protection.

Mark Satinet, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's water vole recovery project officer, said the move would help deter incidents of deliberate persecution and will require local authorities, developers and landowners to act more responsibly towards the animal.

He said: "This sends out a strong message for the protection of water voles. We do not want the actions of a few to destroy the work of so many landowners, river keepers and organisations like English Nature and the Environment Agency, who are working to return water voles to our rivers."

For the last three years the trust's water vole recovery project has surveyed 230 half kilometre river sections to see if positive habitat improvement works and measures to control mink, which eat water voles, have improved water vole populations.

The surveys have reported success in a number of areas with water voles returning to rivers in Swindon and North Wiltshire for the first time in five years.

Mr Satinet said: "There have been great efforts over the last two years to control mink for the benefit of water voles which we find quickly return to areas of good habitat when they are free of mink."

Mr Satinet said he did not know how many water voles there were in Wiltshire but said the county had an above average number of sites where water voles had been seen.

He said: "Where control measures are in place there has been a 66 per cent increase in the range of water voles, increasing to 84 per cent of the waterways in these areas of mink control.

"Outside of these areas of mink control, water vole populations have declined by more than half to only 22.7 per cent of areas surveyed.

"Only last year it was thought that water voles had disappeared from the Rushy Platt Nature Reserve in Swindon. However, after a high profile campaign to persuade cat owners to fit bells to their pets, water voles have been heard again at the site."

In December all the wildlife trusts signed up to Water for Wildlife, a partnership with water companies and the Environment Agency, to reverse water vole decline in the UK through conservation work on the ground.

This includes river restoration schemes, strategic mink control and working with volunteers to carry out survey work.