Volunteers brave mist and cold to plant new memorial woods in Leigh Park

Teams from Leigh Park-based Positive Pathways were doing their bit to help build the new nature reserve at a proposed reservoir site off Swanmore Road, in Warren Park.

The project is being led by Portsmouth Water, which owns the land, and is in partnership with Havant Borough Council

The aim is to give communities a place to visit for quiet reflection, as well as provide a new woodland corridor for wildlife to move around the wider area.

The Positive Pathways team planted oak, hazel and birch trees, with the help of Portsmouth Water’s principal ecologist Trevor Codlin and the company’s site management team.

It was the last stage in a project to plant hundreds of new trees this winter to replace some of the young trees, which were planted last spring but suffered during the prolonged dry summer weather when water supplies were under pressure.

Trevor said: ‘We are really grateful for the hard work of the volunteering team who did a great job of planting trees in our memorial woodland, which we hope many local residents and wildlife will be able to enjoy in years to come.’

As it grows, the new woodland will provide a valuable connection between other areas of woodland on the site and further afield.

It will allow birds and mammals such as dormice and bats, to move around and feed more easily in the area.

Beverley Palmer, of Positive Pathways, was happy to play her part in developing the woodland.

‘Our small team worked well with the Portsmouth Water staff and we thoroughly enjoyed the hours spent there,’ she added. ‘This is the second time we have had the opportunity to plant trees at the site and we are looking forward to going back in years to come knowing that we had a hand in planting the trees in the memorial woodland.’

Portsmouth Water’s planning applications to develop Havant Thicket Reservoir on its site are currently open for public consultation with Havant Borough Council and East Hampshire District Council. Comments can be shared with the councils until December 18.

The reservoir would secure much-needed supplies for the water-stressed south east and protect Hampshire chalk streams from over abstraction, as well as provide a new, green leisure hub for local communities, a wetland for birds and be supported by the creation and improvement of about 180 hectares of woodland on and near the site, the company said.

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