Peartree Green site specific project
Peartree Green is a recently declared Local Nature Reserve located just to the north of the centre of Woolston, Southampton.
The opportunity
The site is surrounded by housing and ideally located to divert recreational visits away from nearby Weston Shore – identified as a medium-priority site by Bird Aware Solent Rangers. However, Peartree Green had no formalised footpaths and all visible tracks through it were very muddy and wet in the winter – making it an undesirable place to visit.
Bird Aware Solent supported a £76k bid by Southampton City Council to upgrade the site for visitors by:
- Creating a new 1.6km long surfaced footpath to create one large and two shorter circular walks and enable a figure of eight loop
- Installing two new interpretation boards and additional waymarking posts to provide useful orientation information to site users and make the overall feel of the site more welcoming.
The results
The project was fully funded and the whole project was able to be delivered at no direct cost to the local community it serves. The new route will be advertised via a leaflet and guided walks through the Friends of Peartree Green Local Nature Reserve group.
The success of the route in attracting visitors away from more sensitive areas will be assessed by comparing baseline data against current
usage.
“This funding source provided an ideal opportunity to enable people to make use of an area of nature all year round, providing them with somewhere other than the coast to enjoy their recreation time”.
Lindsay McCulloch, Southampton City Council Project Manager
