A rope bridge has been built to help dormice safely cross a busy road.

The unique crossing, 18ft in the air, was erected after fears a new relief road would sever a community of 20 of the furry creatures living in Anscombe Wood.

Consisting of five steel reinforced ropes, the arboreal route has been strung over the Haywards Heath relief road between the equivalent of two telegraph poles, linking groups of trees with a similar habitat on the other side.

The five-star treatment is part of a package of environmental measures developers had to carry out to get planning permission for homes at Bolnore Village, near Haywards Heath.

Work on the relief road, given the green light by the Government in January after a ten-year wait, is expected to continue until next year.

Dormice are a protected species which has become extinct in as many as seven English counties during the last century.

Dr Tony Whitbread, head of conservation at the Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: "Dormice live in trees. If you stick a road through a large woodland you divide a population in half so it becomes untenable.

"A little damage to a woodland can result in extinction of the dormouse. The rope bridge is trying to overcome that through technology."

An environmental assessment was carried out in the planning stages of the relief road. The report also included sections on protecting other species in the wood, including badgers, deer, fungi, and amphibians.

West Sussex County Council's senior ecologist Graham Roberts suggested the aerial walkway after seeing similar ones used by red squirrels on the Isle of Wight.

Lieutenant Colonel Tex Pemberton, council Cabinet member for strategic environmental services, said: "Dormice live almost exclusively in trees and are trained to clutch branches in a vice like grip from a very early age. That means there is little chance of them plummeting down on passing traffic."

Drivers are unlikely to be distracted. Experts say people will be lucky to see the rope bridge being used at all as dormice spend three quarters of their life asleep and are strictly nocturnal.