Major rewilding project planned after land purchase

A swathe of land has been bought by Harborough District Council for rewilding

More than 130 acres (54 hectares) of land in Leicestershire has been set aside for a major rewilding project.

Harborough District Council said it had purchased a site, equivalent to about 80 football pitches, close to Great Bowden near Market Harborough, for £1.9m.

The Market Harborough Rewilding Project will be supported by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust (LRWT) to improve an area of countryside described as some of the most heavily-modified and nature-depleted in lowland England.

Council leader Phil Knowles said the initiative was "an amazing opportunity to restore nature on a nationally important scale in an area where this has never been achieved before."

"This will be a catalyst for a strategic partnership that will rewild large swathes of nature-depleted countryside, protecting it as public open space for generations to come and bringing nature back to the area," he said.

'Amazing legacy'

Mat Carter, LRWT chief executive, said: "Only through ambitious and innovative projects like this can we reverse the decline in nature and realise the benefits that it can bring."

He said the project would showcase how land could be restored "to support thriving wildlife and bring benefits to the communities that live around them".

He added: "This is an opportunity to create an amazing legacy."

Parts of the planned rewilding area are plots of former farmland.

The trust said it was planning a range of approaches to managing the land, including using herbivores like ponies or rare breed cattle to graze it more naturally.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the land purchase could also lead to the creation of a new council waste depot.

Knowles added : "Not having our own waste depot to house our own fleet and equipment has been costly for taxpayers, but due to this land being adjacent to the existing depot site, we now have options for the future."