One of Suffolk’s newest business parks has plans to provide green spaces for workers and habitat for wildlife, thanks to a collaboration with a specialist conservation team.
The owners of Riduna Park in Melton is working with Greener Growth, a community interest company (CIC) started five years ago in East Anglia to help transform neglected spaces, improve biodiversity, and bring therapeutic horticulture to individuals in particular need.
The Greener Growth team intends to create areas of wildflowers and herbs, and open spaces for office workers to use at lunchtimes, There are also plans for raised flowerbeds and a salad vegetable garden, as well as the installation of hedgehog, bat and bird boxes.
READ MORE: Seminar encourages housing development that is fit for people and the natural world
Positive use of space
The project will be overseen by Greener Growth’s CEO, Joannah Metcalfe.
She said: “Our work started out with the desire to use therapeutic horticulture to teach people in disadvantaged groups about growing food and conserving nature.
“We knew very quickly it was having a profound affect, and so to allow us to continue to fund that work – particularly with schools and similar community groups – we look to partner with corporate organisations, like Riduna, who see benefit in having us do a commercial activity which helps meet their needs and generates a more positive use of their space.”
The Greener Growth team includes experienced conservation and horticultural experts, as well as those specialising in construction for outdoor spaces.
Great fit
Riduna Park’s project manager, Katie Emerson, added: “Teaming up with Greener Growth is a great fit. We like that as a CIC they have a wider objective around educating people in specific groups and schools through horticultural therapy, but also that they are very understanding of our desire to have a collaboration which can evolve as the site changes.
The first two phases of Riduna Park are fully occupied, with phase three expected to get under way this spring.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here