Why did the council close the road? To let the toads get to the other side He said: "It's a great feeling to know you have helped to save them - they are so close to reproducing it feels like a real tragedy if they don't make it. There's only so much you can do as a volunteer, so it's good to see the council taking on a conservationist position rather than worrying about any complaints from residents. It is a very small price to pay for helping protect the thousands of toads that use that crossing every breeding season. Toads have a strong migratory instinct and will follow the same route back to ancestral breeding ponds, no matter what stands in its way. The Wildlife Trust estimates that approximately 20 tonnes of toads are killed in the UK each year trying to reach breeding waters. Numbers of many species of amphibians have dwindling in recent years due to road deaths, disease and drought. Chris Harrison, Richmond council's cabinet member for highways, said: "Our green spaces and lively wildlife habitats make our borough special. This migration is driven by the weather as the toads like warm, wet conditions. So whilst it will be difficult for us to predict exact dates and times, we will do our best to avoid inconvenience for the public. Bath and North East Somerset Council has also said last month that it intends to close a road on the outskirts of Bath for six weeks while toads are crossing. Sivi Sivanesan, a spokesman for Froglife, said: "Long before these roads were even built, toads have followed the same instinct to go back to where they were born to spawn. Unfortunately, the busier these paths get the more dangerous they become for them. The number of fatalities we see every year is astonishing. If we don't start helping the toads, we will see a great depletion in numbers and in the worst case, extinction. However, some local residents have questioned the need for such drastic action. Marie Carmen Vaccaro, from north Kingston, said: "I am an animal lover, but what I am very annoyed about is that I will have to make long, unnecessary one-mile detours, waste time, fuel and carbon emissions just to avoid a toad migration that nobody in this area has ever witnessed."