A NEW river restoration project is starting at Whitehall Stream.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Swindon Borough Council, will be completing the first phase of a river restoration project this week along the Whitehall stream at the Rivermead Flood Storage Area as part of Network Rail’s, The Greater West Programme: Achieving No Net Loss.

In 2019 Swindon Borough Council secured an £89,000 grant from Network Rail through The Greater West Programme. This is a biodiversity offsetting scheme that supports new habitat creation on third party land.

Nick Wilson, water team project officer at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, said; “The funding from Network Rail will allow us to enhance habitat for wildlife whilst at the same time providing opportunities for people to access an area that had previously been hidden.”

Councillor Gary Sumner, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Strategic Infrastructure, Transport and Planning, said: “We are very grateful to Network Rail for providing the funding for this scheme which forms part of the Forest Meadows Project we are delivering in partnership with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

“This biodiversity off-setting scheme is one of many we are supporting within the Borough and is another example of our commitment to improving our local environment and reducing our carbon footprint.

“Biodiversity is all around us and in the most unexpected of places. Swindon has a network of little known biodiversity corridors and this is an important part of this ecological network. The volunteers have done an amazing job so far and it will be fantastic to see the end result.”

The project will create a new wildlife pond and regrade 80 metres of stream banks to create new habitats and boost biodiversity for a more diverse river system. The spoil is removed from the flood plain and will be used to create a landscaped tree lined mound at the adjacent Rivermead community nature reserve.

Volunteers have already brought the invasive Himalayan balsam under control, put up bird and bat boxes and planted woodland wildflowers. Further work is planned for later this winter to remove trees suffering from Ash dieback and replanting them with a mixture of native tree species.