More than 600 residents were consulted on proposals to create a ‘wildlife corridor’ on the edge of a housing development in Witney, Oxfordshire.
Green Square Estates and Tony Benger Landscaping, who manage the public open spaces at Windrush Place, are proposing to create a Wildlife Corridor near the A40 and Downs Road roundabout. Wildlife Corridors are a designated area that connects plants and animal populations that have been separated by human activities and development.
On Wednesday 27 August, representatives from Green Square Estates and Tony Benger Landscaping held a drop in session to discuss proposals for the wildlife corridor with local residents.
To help demonstrate the proposal, several bird boxes, bug hotels, bee houses and other small items were purchased to show what could be installed in a wildlife corridor.
Tony Benger Landscaping also provided several wooden pallets, rubble and turf, which along with redundant tree stakes and dead trees, were able to be built into two hibernacula’s – winter shelters for amphibians and reptiles.
Mark Pritchard, Head of Grounds Maintenance at Tony Benger Landscaping said: “It was great to see how engaged and enthusiastic everyone was about the wildlife on the development. We look forward to working together to enhance both the amount and diversity of wildlife on site, as part of our long-term commitment to the development.”
During the drop-in session event excellent suggestions were made by Windrush Place residents including:
• Expanding our proposed areas of operation to other parts of the estate.
• Leaving a ride-on mowers width of grass at the base of hedges and other boundary features uncut.
• Installing information boards explaining local wildlife.
• Exploring aquatic planting.
• Establishing a nature trail in collaboration with a local school.
James Shackell our Public Open Space Operations Manager said: “Over the past couple of years, we have had several customers reach out enquiring as to what we could do to ecologically enhance the Windrush Place estate. It therefore made sense to reach out to residents of the estate to see if they had any ideas we could possibly incorporate into our site wide management of the public open space.
“It was lovely to meet some of the locals, and I look forward to working with them in helping implement some of their suggestions alongside our own ideas.”
A follow up letter will now be sent to residents summarising the main suggestions received and outlining next steps.
A company owned by GSA, Green Square Estates maintain public open spaces on residential developments across the South West including Windrush Place in Witney.
Green Square Estates have carefully developed a unique model for adopting and maintaining areas of open space, drainage features, and play areas, with the capacity to deliver grounds maintenance services to schemes ranging from small rural exception sites to large scale, urban expansion schemes.
Find out more about Green Square Estates here: Home - GreenSquare Estates.
