GREENER
A community that
cares about nature
Meet Rick – an environmental community liaison officer at Telford & Wrekin Council who lives in Telford and loves nature, both on and off the job.
Q. What does your job involve? Rick: I’m really lucky as I get to spend my days working with community volunteers in our Local Nature Reserves, parks and other patches of council land, enhancing the natural environment. Q. What have been your favourite projects recently? Rick: It’s been brilliant delivering so many improvements thanks to the council’s green spaces funding. This has included woodland renovation schemes, new pathways and steps at sites such as The Brandlee and Langley Fields. We have also installed a new picnic area at Holmer Lake in partnership with the Friends
group of volunteers that includes purpose- built benches accessible for people who use wheelchairs, meaning more people can get out and enjoy our fantastic nature reserves. I have loved planting trees with Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award volunteers from Southall School to create a new community orchard in Aqueduct, working with vulnerable people from My Options, students that have disengaged from mainstream learning through the SEEDS School as well as teams from Persimmon Homes and Fujitsu UK. We all got stuck in, removing invasive shrubs from wildflower meadows, building a ‘Buglife Bee-lines’ wildlife garden in Dawley Park, carrying out heathland restoration and constructing a new pathway at Randlay Valley. The whole time helping people in the community connect with nature and bring about positive changes for our green spaces.
Q. Which is your favourite green space in the borough? Rick: Holmer Lake and Randlay Valley are the two reserves I visit most days, purely because they are
right on my doorstep, but inside and outside of work I visit them all regularly. I genuinely love them all as each site is so different in what it has to offer.
Nature in numbers
“Our green spaces are a real asset – you can always find the perfect spot to enjoy nature, relax or keep fit, and of course it’s all free!” Councillor Carolyn Healy Cabinet member for climate change, green spaces, natural and historic environment and cultural services
IN THE LAST YEAR, THE COUNCIL HAS:
Planted more than 2,200 trees and ‘whips’
Sown 14 wildflower sites
Planted more than 100,000 bulbs
DID KN W YOU ?
Declared 6 new Local Nature Reserves
Protected 107 new neighbourhood Green Guarantee Sites
Telford and Wrekin has significantly more trees than many other towns and cities. It’s estimated that the council is responsible for around 15 million trees!
Cleared or de-silted 9 ponds, pools and waterways
Built 55 bat and 150 swift boxes ready to be installed
Improved the 14-mile long Silkin Way, linking its network of green spaces for walkers and cyclists
TOTALLY TELFORD
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