2013 WLA Works for the Cleaner, Greener, Safer Award

This page is the portal for the 2013 Cleaner, Greener, Safer Award.

To some surprise this year bid for the CGS award was successful. We had a number of meetings with Nils (the CGS project manager) and the contractors involved ( * * *).

The project has strayed quite a bit from our original bid précis but we agreed that the changes, even if radicals, will at end amount to an important enhancement of the area, further integrate it with the rest of the park and eventually enhance significantly its ecological value.

The works are and will be controversial to some but it is in the nature of the evolution of urban green environment that sometimes new start and remodelling have to take place if the long term viability of the area has to be assured.

The plan of the finished area will be radically different from its original design (shaped by the 2008 June and October BBC "Breathing Spaces" works ) :

The new look will divide the area diagonally in two, the zones will be separated by a low but substantial earthbank. The front part of the WLA, abutting Albridge Street, will have a new visitor path bordering a wild-flower meadow and a wetland (a raingarden) zone. Behind the earth embankment, that will be seeded and planted with suitable vegetation, a rows of bushed will separate the rest of the WildLife Area. This part will remain dedicated to woodland and scrubland (the oak tree will be transferred there). The Albridge side will also have a new robust wooden railing, clearly delineating it.