History

“The Road To Nowhere” in Coedkernew, Newport was originally built as a distribution road to support the LG Electronics factory in the mid 1990’s but was then abandoned when LG pulled out of the development. Over the course of 20 years, The Road became a magnet dumping ground for massive amounts of commercial and household fly tipping from across the UK. The area was cleaned up by Newport City Council mid 2000’s but as no restrictions to The Road were put in place at this time, fly tipping once again soon began to be dumped here and by mid 2010’s the rubbish was piled high along the 1.5km road length and into the adjacent woodland and meadow, attracting antisocial behaviour and frequently utilised as unauthorised transit camps by the Travelling Community. The Road became a very intimidating, unsafe, no-go area for residents despite being linked to a newly improved cycle route at its southern end. “The Road” and adjacent area totalling approx. 35 acres is owned by Newport City Council, approximately one third of which lies within a designated SSSI.

With ongoing pressure over several years from a few local residents, discussions began in 2018 via a cross-agency /community members working party to address the negative impact of this neglected fly tipped area, the associated environmental/social issues and a proposed clean-up of the vast amounts of rubbish dumped on what was by then notoriously known as “The Road To Nowhere”. The Community members felt that it was imperative to get this area cleaned up to remove the negative stigma attached to the site and to reclaim the area for nature and community use.

In October 2021, this major clean-up was funded and undertaken by Newport City Council and a local waste management contractor. This was subsequently followed up by a Big Community Litter Picking Event organised by the original working party group members Sue Colwill and Helena & Caroline Antoniou in collaboration with Newport City Council, when over 120 members of Newport and Cardiff litter picking groups, members of the public, Keep Wales Tidy Officers, Council Members and staff turned out to continue the removal of rubbish from the site. In total over 700 tons of illegally tipped rubbish was removed and recycled where possible. With the vast amount of rubbish cleared away, it was immediately evident that the site contained a diverse range of natural habitats already populated by a wonderful diversity of wildlife which needed to be acknowledged and valued as an asset to nature, the local community and Newport City Council. To deter reoccurrence of fly tipping on site, a locked entrance barrier and CCTV cameras were installed by NCC on The Road. There have been no further fly tipping incidents to date.

It was at this time that a constituted community group Friends Of The Road To Nature was formed by Sue, Helena and Caroline in collaboration with Newport City Council with a vision for the future to transform The Road To Nowhere into The Road To Nature (RTN). Several local nature conservation agencies were also keen to come on board with the project, offering advice and interaction to enhance community engagement and accessibility and support sympathetic habitat management and increased biodiversity in the area.

Over the past 3 years our journey to nature restoration and community engagement on RTN site has proved to be a real success story with carefully considered improvements to habitat management/accessibility and varied online and on-site ecological based training to upskill group members/NCC Biodiversity teams.

We have had funding from various agencies to run “community in nature” events and Local Nature Partnerships to provide small scale infrastructure to protect the meadow habitat and to install a viewing platform over the reed bed and a log circle for community engagement in the woods. Work is also proposed for winter 25 to open up a section of reed bed to expose an open water area to help support increased diversity in aquatic flora and fauna and install a “dipping platform” for community engagement with pond/reed bed wildlife.

We have several passionate bio-recorders within the group with links to expert ID support who are engaged in ongoing recording of site species to help us better understand the potential of the site for nature restoration/support and formulate informed action plans to move into the future with the project. The group has held two well attended Bioblitz events (2022 & 2024) to increase the number and diversity of bio-records and has organised many varied events such as bat and moth night walks, bird spotting, family bug hunts & nature art sessions, fungi ID, mental health support walks and much more for community engagement with nature on site. These events will be ongoing to help encourage local people to come to explore Road To Nature to enjoy the wonderful biodiversity here, give opportunities for all for nature-based education and experience all the benefits to mental & physical health/wellbeing that being out in nature can bring.

RTN Group has been busy developing links with the ecology community and various ecology organisations such as Bumblebee Conservation Trust (we run a monthly beewalk during summer & are involved in Natur Am Byth Shrill Carder Bee Project), Coal Spoil Fungi (supporting our mycological recording), Living Levels Project, Gwent Wildlife Trust (Dormouse & Water Voles Projects), Buglife Cymru, RSPB Newport Wetlands, Gwent Ornithological Society, NRW and now National Museum Of Wales Entomology Team, all of which is underpinned by continuing engagement with Newport City Council Biodiversity Team. Most recently we have been forging links with John Paul Construction and Microsoft teams who have generously offered and are already engaging in practical and financial support to help forward the RTN Project.

Within RTN site there are a diverse range of habitats with deciduous woodlands, reed beds and wetland areas, meadow, hedgerow and scrub, reens/ reen margins, road verges, tarmac roadway, rubble bunds and air space with connecting green corridors leading to farmland, reens, meadow, hedgerow & coastal habitats. The biodiversity here is complex and diverse and we are only just beginning to understand its interplay. Bio-recording of many taxon groups is regular, focused and ongoing and is increasing due to training/upskilling of volunteer recorders with varied educational events organised by RTN and support from many local ecologists. To date, over 3,800 records of 730 species have been recorded on RTN site, covering a wide range of plants, birds, mammals, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, fungi, fish and microorganisms with several rare/scarce species including Bombus sylvarum (Shrill Carder Bee), Sehirus luctuosus (Forget-me-not Shieldbug ) and also a first for Wales, Contarinia petioli ((Aspen gall Midge).

Evidence of Muscardinus avellanarius (Hazel Dormouse) via cam recordings and Arvicola amphibius (Water Vole) via sonogram recording have both been found here, as well as sonogram recordings of 13 species of Bat to highlight just a few.

And into the future for RTN?… Of course, with so much current uncertainty and imbalance between the push for economic growth, social demands and nature conservation it is difficult to predict outcomes for any green site but with ongoing work from ecology professionals and volunteers to support the habitats and biodiversity on RTN we hope to highlight and have acknowledged the ecological value of the site, aiming to ensure increased protection going forward.