A Shropshire village is set to hold one of its largest ever projects aimed at connecting young people with nature.
The culmination of the Albrighton Verge Improvement Project, which has been led by 1st Albrighton Scout Group and the two local schools, takes place tomorrow, 28 May from 10am to 3pm, when hundreds of children, teachers and volunteers will aim to ‘rewild’ a large part of Newport Road.
Dubbed as the ‘Big Plant Out’, the initiative has seen young people carefully grow their seeds over the last couple of months with the end goal of swapping the classroom for nature to transform a dedicated area so wildlife can thrive.
It will create a beautiful ‘wild’ green space on the entrance to the village, boosting local biodiversity, climate and mental and health wellbeing in the process.
“We have a real nature crisis in the UK, with 97 per cent of our wildflower meadows lost – this is having a real detrimental effect to wildlife,” explained 1st Albrighton Scout Group’s Rachel Wild. “Road verges offer a real opportunity to help reverse this loss and if managed correctly, they could form long, linear meadows, providing habitat in themselves. Albrighton has lots of these verges, so we thought let’s bring the community together and try to do something about it.”
She continued: “Working with Restoring Shropshire Verges Project and spearheaded by Janet Cobb, we successfully got the buy-in of the Highways Agency to tackle a section of grass on Newport Road, one of the main entry points to our village.
“Over the last few months, children from St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Albrighton Primary, our local scout’s group and people in the wider community have been cultivating seeds with view to taking part in the ‘Big Plant’ out on 28 May. The community response has been brilliant! Everyone has got behind it and we believe we’ll have nearly 1,000 wildflower plugs to plant on the day. This will create a striking entrance to Albrighton, but more importantly will support pollinators, invertebrates, birds and mammals.”
The Albrighton Verge Improvement Project intervention has been granted permission from Shropshire Highways to adopt the verge and received backing from Albrighton and Donington Parish Council.
Midcounties Co-op and British Gardens have also been extremely supportive, donating refreshments for the army of planters and supplying the seeds, tools and watering cans respectively.
Once the ‘Big Plant’ is completed, organisers will install several signs indicating ‘please no mow’ and informing the public about the plant life cycle.
Rachel concluded: “We’ll have to be patient as it will take several years for our village to reap the most benefit. However, the important thing is we have galvanised the community, helped our young people connect with nature and taken the important first steps to supporting vital wildlife.”
She concluded: “Wednesday is going to be a great day for Albrighton, and I can’t wait to see everyone there, getting involved and making a difference.”
For further information, please email rachel@outdoorwildlearning.org
CAPTION: 1st Albrighton Scout Group have been part of the project.
