A BEAUTY spot in Ellesmere Port is benefiting from a £62,500 investment.
A number of improvements are planned or are currently being carried out at Rivacre Valley Local Nature Reserve.
Hazel Barber, the borough’s landscape officer, outlined the various initiatives in a council report.
She said: “The facilities in the countryside need developing and, to undertake this, we have secured external funding through partnership working with the voluntary sector and industry.”
Action Wirral Rivers (AWR) has secured £35,066 from the Waste Recycling Environment group, for access roads, a new bridge, wildflower planting, staff training, events and woodland management works.
AWR and the Mersey Basin Campaign (MBC) together secured £5,000 from Innospec to plough the hill at the Netherpool Road end of the valley.
This area has now been sown with a cornfield mix by volunteers at Innospec and pupils from Rivacre Valley Primary School.
The children also made a scarecrow to keep the birds away while the meadow germinated.
An interpretive panel, with artwork by the council’s graphic team, will be in place shortly showing what wildlife might be found on the field.
AWR and MBC have secured £6,400 from the BBC Breathing Places Fund, administered by the Big Lottery, to improve the bridge over the brook near the pumping station and provide training for volunteers on water-based issues, and also some access work.
Via the Mersey Forest group, the park has utilised a Section 106 agreement to use £9,000 for woodland management and planting works.
The Forestry Commission has provided £7,000, as part of its English Woodland grant scheme, for access works.
