Nature reserve will more than treble in size

Cormorants can often be seen at Paxton Pits

Plans to more than treble the size of a nature reserve in Cambridgeshire have been brought forward again after being halted due to cost.

Paxton Pits in Little Paxton near St Neots is due to expand from 78 hectares to about 280, bringing in surrounding meadows, woodland and lakes next to the River Great Ouse.

Updated leases are ready to be signed, nearly two decades after Huntingdonshire District Council first agreed to take over the land.

Mike Anderson-Brown, chairman of the Friends of Paxton Pits, said he was "tremendously excited" by the latest developments, but added that it had "taken an awful long time to get here".

Parts of Paxton Pits are still being quarried, while much of it has become a nature reserve

The plans to transfer the quarry – part of which is still mined for gravel – and surrounding land from its owners to the council for restoration were agreed in 2006, but halted by the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession.

Little Paxton Quarry was mothballed from 2008 until 2016, which also "delayed the restoration works", Huntingdonshire District Council said.

Once the leases on the land are signed again, for a peppercorn rent, the public will have access to routes linking Diddington to the Ouse Valley Way and Little Paxton, Mr Anderson-Brown said.

The land that will ultimately make up the expanded reserve also includes 27 kilometres of footpaths (16.7 miles), 8.4 kilometres of cycleway (5.2 miles) and new bird hides and viewpoints.

It also includes five lakes, three islands designed for wading birds, a reedbed, wildflower meadows, wet woodland and scrubland, which the council said would "support a whole host of plants, insects and birds".

But full access to this land will not be possible until at least the end of the decade, when the site is no longer used as a quarry. Holcim UK has permission to continue extracting gravel from the site until 2029.

Taken alongside adjoining private land, the nature reserve will be part of a 600-hectare open space, stretching between the river and the A1.

'Spectacular green space'

The Friends of Paxton Pits will be involved in the management of the expanded reserve, including by funding a new ranger apprentice for more than two years.

"We've been waiting a very, very long time to get our hands on the reserve," Mr Anderson-Brown said.

He added that "everything's ready" to complete the transfer.

Julie Kerr, executive member for parks and countryside at the district council, said: "The extension not only secures long-term protection of important habitats, but it also gives our residents and visitors a spectacular green space to enjoy for decades to come."

The leases must still be signed by the council, Oxford University Chest and Thornhill Estate. They will last for at least 80 years.

Paxton Pits has been a quarry since the 1940s. The nature reserve currently has a visitor centre as well as several walking routes.

It says it is "famous for its nightingales and cormorants" as well as a "wide variety of other birds, insects, mammals and flora".