Project aims to boost wildlife in neglected spaces

Residents and volunteers scything the meadow at Stanfield Close

People living in one Bristol neighbourhood are transforming its spaces to boost wellbeing and help the environment.

Volunteers working on the Really Wild Lockleaze project, set up by Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust, have planted bulbs and fruit trees and worked on woodland, ponds and hedgerows.

As well as improving the look of the suburb, the project hopes to encourage more biodiversity and is monitoring plants and animals, including bumblebees.

"There was some worry that because of housing developments we would lose some of our green space," said Laura Tarlo-Ross from the trust. "It's just grown from there."

The project is partly funded through the National Lottery as part of the community climate action partnership.

Some money has also been given to the trust from local people.

Volunteers are creating floral borders while monitoring wildlife

According to the Bristol One City Ecological Emergency Strategy, numbers of common songbirds like swifts and starlings have dropped by more than 96% in the city since the 1990s.

"There is a real love for nature in Lockleaze," Miss Tarlo-Ross said.

Residents started the scheme in Stanfield Close and have since planted more than 1,600 sq metres (17,200 sq ft) of woodland and 170 metres (557ft) of hedgerow. They have also created five ponds.

Ms Tarlo-Ross said the project is also bringing neighbours together.

"Many hands make light work," she said.

The volunteers are working largely on green areas around houses but are also focusing on hidden spaces, like behind Lockleaze Sports Centre.

"When you've got lots of little pockets of land, if you can work across all of them you can create a sort of connected habitat," said Ms Tarlo-Ross.

"We're lucky to be right in between Stoke Park and a railway line which creates a sort of accidental nature corridor."