Wildlife will thrive along the new nature corridor
Walkers follow 2.5 mile route, officially marking the eco-rich zone opening
DOZENS of people have come together to declare a new nature corridor open.
Around 70 local residents, children, town and district councillors and naturalists walked the 2.5-mile route on Saturday.
The Newbury Nature Corridor stretches between the Lockdown Wood in Barn Crescent field and its counterpart in Goldwell Park.
Along the route, walkers stopped off at John Rankin Schools and St Bartholomew’s School to hear about the restoration work of their three ponds, planned and funded as part of the project.
Newbury Friends of the Earth coordinator and Lockdown Woods and Newbury Nature Corridor project leader Susan Millington said it had been a “fantastic morning”.
“I was very encouraged to see so many people come together to talk about how to help our local wildlife to thrive,” she said.
“It is all very well to have isolated islands of nature such as our lovely nature reserves, but we really need them to be joined up so that our mammals and insects can move easily, looking for food, shelter and mates.
“A nature-rich zone between two of our Lockdown Woods seems like a good place to start in Newbury.
“We hope this will inspire people to get together to make our neighbourhoods havens for wildlife to move around in, and more attractive to humans in the process.
“Of course, we would love the idea to spread across other areas of Newbury too.”
The Newbury Friends of the Earth team gave away packets of wildflower seeds to get people started and ecologist Justine Whitehead also recommended lots of things people could do in their gardens to help wildlife.
She added: “Possibly the best
thing to do for wildlife and biodiversity is build a garden pond.”
Executive headteacher at John Rankin Schools Flora Cooper said: “We will create a lovely wild open space where the children can play around this pond, which will be covered by a metal grill for safety.
“The smaller pond will be used for pond dipping and scientific experiments.”
The procession then moved on to view the Nature Garden at St Bart’s, where Collete Wall, a science teacher, spoke about the school’s restoration plans.
There are nine sites under management of Newbury Town Council in the Newbury Nature Corridor area.
In Goldwell Park, councillor David Marsh told the group about funding for the ponds’ restoration work, and thanked
both schools for their hospitality.
He added: “The cynical might ask can we afford this type of project?
“I would say when we look at the scale of the climate and biodiversity crises, we can’t afford not to.”
Before cutting the symbolic green ribbon, Gary Norman, leader of Newbury Town Council, said: “Urban corridors are being set up all over the world and it is great that we can do our little bit in our own town.”
After the event Dr Millington said she had been told by two other local environmental groups that they have been inspired to develop nature corridors in their areas.
The Newbury Nature Corridor project was started in autumn 2023 and organisers were given a £600 grant from Veolia to help set things up.