Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has been awarded a £50,000 grant from Biffa Award to create a new community wetland at Kingsbury Water Park in North Warwickshire, as part of the Tame Valley Wetlands Landscape Partnership Scheme.
The project area, image © Theoc Air 2016
The grant from Biffa Award (a multi-million pound fund that helps to build communities and transform lives through awarding grants to community and environmental projects across the UK), combined with funding already secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Howard Victor Skan Charitable Trust, aims to create an exciting outdoor space benefiting both people and wildlife.
The wetland project will see the creation of reedbed, ponds and a sand martin bank, as well as the restoration of rare floodplain meadow, making a fantastic new home for wildlife on former waterlogged football pitches. It is hoped that priority conservation species will inhabit the site, from amphibians and birds, such as Snipe and Sand Martins, to mammals such as Otters and bats.
A new raised viewing platform with outdoor seating area will also be constructed, providing a vantage point for visitors to watch wildlife and acting as an outdoor classroom for local schools. The addition of a pond dipping platform will provide hours of fun for enquiring minds, investigating invertebrate life around the pond margins.
Tracey Doherty, Wetland Landscape Officer for the Scheme, said “we are delighted to be awarded this substantial funding from Biffa Award, the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Howard Victor Skan Charitable Trust. It is a great example of how funders and organisations can deliver more by working together in partnership”.
Paula Cheesman, Country Parks Manager for Warwickshire County Council said “the new community wetland will add an exciting new asset to the Country Park for visitors and the local community to enjoy”.
The Tame Valley Wetlands is a landscape partnership scheme, led by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and funded by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Their vision is to create a wetland landscape, rich in wildlife and accessible to all. Work includes conservation projects to restore heritage and enhance the area for wildlife, access improvements, training and volunteering opportunities, as well as a programme of exciting events and activities aimed at all ages and interests.
Work on Kingsbury’s Community Wetlands will begin in January 2016. For more information and maps of the project area please click here.