Projects in Lancashire and north London show how wildlife-rich parks and reserves can bring nature closer to communities
Published · Sep 28, 2026, 10:35 AM
Key context
Conservationists and community groups are calling for nature to be brought closer to people’s homes, citing benefits for health, wellbeing, climate resilience and wildlife. Projects at Cutacre in Lancashire and Lordship Recreation Ground in north London show how former industrial land and neglected urban parks can be transformed through habitat restoration, community involvement and long-term investment.
Section
World
Format
LONG ARTICLE
Published
Sep 28, 2026, 10:35 AM
Nature should be available “right next to where people live”, conservationists have said, as communities and organisations push for more wildlife-rich green spaces in urban areas.
Research has found that many people do not have parks, woodlands or wetlands within a 15-minute walk of their homes. Advocates say access to nature supports health and wellbeing, while natural spaces can also help address extreme weather, climate change and wildlife loss.
The Wildlife Trusts have urged the Government to make improving access to nature a priority. Separately, a coalition led by the Horticultural Trades Association and the Gardens Trust has called for trees, plants, gardens and parks to be recognised as “essential infrastructure” and supported through long-term investment.
Projects in areas from Greater Manchester to London are demonstrating how green spaces close to homes can benefit both wildlife and local communities.
### Restoring nature on former industrial land
At Cutacre, on the edge of Salford, Lancashire Wildlife Trust has transformed land formerly used for open-cast coal mining. The site now includes diverse meadows, grazing areas with longhorn cattle, ponds, trees and hedges.
The meadows have been enhanced with plug plants of local wild species grown in partnership with Cheshire Wildlife Trust. They include dyer’s greenweed, which has been reintroduced to Greater Manchester after becoming functionally extinct in the area.
The reserve supports threatened grey partridges, lapwings, skylarks, grasshopper warblers and willow tits. Its reedy wetland areas are described as being “stuffed full of snipe” in winter. Reed buntings, weasels and kestrels also live at the site, while butterflies move through the meadows during the summer.
Much of the landscape is managed as lowland meadow through a biodiversity net gain scheme. Credits are sold to developers who need to meet requirements to increase nature overall as part of their developments, with the money supporting wildlife restoration.
But the reserve’s wider purpose is its proximity to local people, according to Stephen Cartwright, the trust’s nature reserves senior officer.
The site is bordered by a housing estate, with further homes being built nearby. It is also close to deprived parts of Salford and to Bolton, Wigan and Manchester. An industrial site with warehouses and a scrapyard sit next to the reserve.
Although the surroundings are highly urban, Mr Cartwright said visitors can still “get a sense of being out of it” at the site.
“If you’re a child growing up in a school over there, the majority of them won’t travel to nature reserves, we need to bring reserves to them, we need the places right next to where people live, that are scrappy bits of land,” he said.
“If you want nature there, it needs to be behind the industrial estate and the houses,” he told the Press Association.
Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Alan Wright said engaging people with nature was best achieved by creating opportunities next to where they live, describing Cutacre as “a perfect example”.
The local community is closely involved. Schoolchildren take part, residents check on the cattle each day and around 90 volunteers of different ages and backgrounds help at the site.
### A community-led transformation in north London
More than 150 miles south, in north London, local people have led the transformation of Lordship Recreation Ground in Haringey.
Tottenham’s biggest park sits in a heavily urban area with high levels of deprivation, next to the Broadwater Farm estate. When the Friends of Lordship Rec group was formed in 2001, its chairman David Morris said the park was a “neglected, unsafe eyesore”.
The buildings were derelict, the traditionally tightly mown recreation ground had little biodiversity and the council was considering cutting down the woodland to reduce antisocial behaviour, he said.
Today, with £7 million in lottery and other funding, the park has a community-run hub, play areas, sports facilities, meadows, woodland, an orchard and a food-growing garden.
A channel restoring part of one of London’s buried rivers runs between willows and wildflower meadows rich in butterflies and other insects. Paths lead through woodland used by runners and dog walkers, while the former boating lake is now managed as a nature feature.
The Friends of Lordship Rec group co-manages the park with Haringey Council. Mr Morris said the project had led to a “phenomenal” transformation in biodiversity, and the park has been designated a borough-level site of importance for nature conservation.
“Being in nature has an amazing positive effect, immediate effect,” he said. He added that biodiversity helped attract people to the green space and allowed them to enjoy its other facilities, while also benefiting wildlife.
He said greater vegetation, greenery and biodiversity could make areas cooler, particularly during the climate crisis and after the heat experienced “this summer”.
Community empowerment is central to the group’s approach. Local people are encouraged to feel ownership of the park and to take an active role in caring for it and the wider area. Dozens of regular volunteers help maintain the site, while activities include bat walks, a birders’ group and “bioblitzes” with local school pupils.
The bioblitzes aim to “excite and educate young children with the joys of nature”, Mr Morris said.
He is also chairman of the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces, which represents 7,000 friends of parks groups around the country. He said there was considerable enthusiasm for improving biodiversity in public green spaces wherever possible.
He called for the Government to provide more money to local authorities and ensure parks are properly funded.
“Every neighbourhood should have access to a public green space,” he said.
A Defra spokesperson said: “This Government is focused on the things that matter most to the British public, including restoring nature so that we have pride in local communities and access to green spaces.
“We are increasing access to nature and the countryside, delivering nine new National River Walks, including the Mersey Way and coastal path, both of which pass through urban areas.”
