Thames Water has received funding to improve and enhance biodiversity between White Hart Lane in Greenwich and Eastern Way in Bexley by creating five hectares of new habitat over the next five years.
It will be doing this by removing denser areas of scrub and non-native species while restoring and extending the areas of more open habitats such as grassland, wildflowers and bare ground. It’s been shown that in London, this approach is the best way to increase the numbers of insects such as the dingy skipper butterfly, shrill carder bee and other rare species.
Claudia Innes, Community Projects Lead at Thames Water, said: “We are delighted to be working on a project that will bring such positive change to the Ridgeway.
“The new habitats created here over the next five years will provide a home for many more species and will be a vital link to other habitat improvement work underway in Thamesmead.”
The project will be undertaken in two phases over the next five years. It has been funded through a biodiversity offsetting agreement with Cory Riverside Energy.
