New wetland alongside A49 in Leominster will filter water pollution and help wildlife

National Highways and The Wildlife Trusts have joined forces to launch a new £6 million Network for Nature programme that will improve habitats across the Midlands, benefitting people, nature and wildlife.

The projects will help create, restore and connect places for wildflowers, trees and wildlife, where the environment has been impacted by activities from previous road building. Natural solutions such as wetlands and reedbeds will help filter polluted run-off from roads.

One project will see new wetland created in the Lugg Valley in Herefordshire, becoming a stepping stone for wildlife between two of the most important sites for wetland birds in the county - Bodenham Lake nature reserve and Wellington Gravel Pits - reducing pollution entering the River Lugg and creating sustainable drainage pools close to the A49.

National Highways, the company responsible for England’s motorways and major A-roads, has awarded nearly £6 million from its Environment and Wellbeing designated fund into the Network for Nature programme.

Regional Operations Director for the Midlands, Andrew Jinks, said: “We’re committed to significantly improving biodiversity near our road network, and this investment in the Midlands underlines our commitment to reducing the impact of our roads on the environment and supporting biodiversity.

“At National Highways, our work goes beyond operating, maintaining and improving roads; we’re investing in the environment and communities surrounding our network, helping to unlock the creation and enhancement of habitats, and this is an example of the difference we can make with designated funding.

“We were delighted to partner with The Wildlife Trusts to realise these projects – a glowing example of how this funding can improve biodiversity near our roads.”

Nikki Robinson, Network for Nature Programme Manager for The Wildlife Trusts said: “We’re very pleased that National Highways is committed to Network for Nature, with a strategic approach to restoring nature and joining up vital places for wildlife to help counter the impacts of previous road building. 

“Historic road building programmes have contributed to nature’s decline, fragmenting wild spaces and causing environmental pollution, and this programme will help Wildlife Trusts throughout England carry out important nature conservation work, and contribute to a national Nature Recovery Network, connecting town and countryside, and joining up vital places for wildlife, and promoting landscape scale connectivity.”

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