Stratford Park - more than a park

Several years in the talking. Now action on the ground that recognises the importance of parks for people and wildlife, in the present and for the future.

Most urban parks owe their origins to the Victorian era and some to a lesser extent, the Edwardian. Many still cling to those periods in respect of their appearance, design and planting. That is not necessarily a bad thing depending on where they are, the function they serve and the make up of their visitors. However it would be an honest and fairly accurate assessment to say that we all need to look at our parks and ask just how good they are, how do they cater for the needs of the communities and visitors they serve, what is their true benefit, how can they be improved, are they sustainable in a time of greatr pressure on financial and human resources, how will they withstand the impacts of a changing climate, what role can they play in the conservation of some of our wildlife.

Stratford Park is located on the A46 as you leave Stroud bound for Cheltenham or Gloucester at the very bottom of the beautiful Painswick Valley, whose fields and hedgerows run to the very edge of the park boundary. Within its 56 acres it has a fully equipped leisure centre with indoor pool and an historic outdoor lido; a range of outside sports courts, bowling green, astro pitch and skate park. The award winning Museum in the Park looks out over a lake and an arboretum which has historic links to the one at Westonbirt. Rising higher in the Painswick Valley, the Painswick Stream runs beside the lake after making its way through the park's own woodland. Walks through the woodland bring you to an area of grassland and wildflowers.

The latter has only developed in the last few years as the park staff have stopped cutting the grass around the fringes of a large area of open green space where families picnic and play game and where some events are held. Extending around the boundary of the park beneath a corridor of trees made up of several species, the grasslands are now home to an ever increasing population of invertebrates including thirteen species of butterfly. Some majestic oaks that once stood alone in the green expanse of close cropped grass, now have tall grassland withwildflowers and herbs around their trunks.

This is all part of the biodiversity plan for the park, which is coordinated through the Stratford Park Management Team. I have been a member of the team for around ten years, during which time I have always pushed hard to see a greater emphasis on improving the park's biodiversity. I am not alone in this and as a consequence, there is increasing activity at the park to improve and enhance the wildlife habitats around the park. To date over 90 species of birds have been recorded at the park and over 300 species of lepidoptera.

Work is now underway to increase these numbers. While the centre of the park retains its more formal appearance, other areas will be managed to create more natural areas and margins. The most significant change will be to the lake, where timber piles that surrounded half of the lake's shore have been removed. The banks are being re-profiled ready for the planting of waterside plants. The project is explained on the panel below, placed at the lake to inform visitors about the work. It also shows the list of stakeholders that have come together to take this project forward, including the local angling club and the Environment Agency.

It is important that the public are kept informed about such work as it happens, such as the lowering of the water levels and the removal of several tons of fish.

At this point in time, the banks of the lake are not pretty. The excavator has done its job and it will take a little time before the banks are covered with plants and attracting more species of wildlife. That said while the digging was underway the lake was visited by a Common Sandpiper (a first!) which fed along the edge of the newly excavated bank.

In the wider context, we may need to change the perceptions of some people as to what the park is or should look like, pointing to the physical health and the therapeutic benefits of being surrounded by trees (cooler air, increased oxygen, sense of calm, etc), to the importance of insects and pollinators in particular, to the entire health of the planet. That parks need not be about neat, well manicured beds full of hundreds of annuals, that it makes economic and environmental sense to look at some plants that require less maintenance and others that need less water during the very hot summers that are being predicted.

Elsewhere in the park, tall linear hedges are being removed to open up new sight lines, encourage greater exploration and provide open space for more wild flower planting.

With both my Stratford Park Management Group and my Stroud Nature hats on, I am really pleased that this work is now underway. It makes the park an even more fitting venue for next year's Big Stroud Nature Festival in the Park.