St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas - response from Basildon Council

Further to this, I received a very prompt response from Josh Childs, the the Parks and Countryside Biodiversity Officer for Basildon Council .... many thanks Josh.

Given his extremely full and helpful response, it seems like I have over-reacted!

Whilst it is a fact that a lot of scrub, bushes and trees have been removed and the whole area remains very unsightly, there appear to be some very encouraging plans to improve the area for wildlife in the longer-term which can only be welcomed.

This is what Josh has said in his reply to me ....

Hi Richard,

The works going on are part of a Parks and Green Spaces project funded by the main Government Levelling up grant funding.

This is a project that I am overseeing. We have hit the site very hard, but we plan to restore and enhance the habitat. First we must open the site up to make it feel safer and more welcoming. A lot of the public rights of way were impassable.

The aim is to improve the site for the local community, enabling them to connect and be in nature.  The works we are carrying out:

• Planting a new native hedgerow along St Nicholas Lane
• Restoring the meadow grassland
• Pond Creation
• Creating new hard standing footpaths
• Creating woodland and meadows walk
• Installing new benches and interpretation
• Installing artificial habitats such as Bee Post, Habitat Panels, Stumperies and dead hedges.

There is only 2 days left of clearance works. This week’s work are tree safety works.  

Currently we are on week 2 of a very large project and will be on going through the year.

We will be clearing up the mess and the paths. We also have our cleansing team going in to remove rubbish, fly tipping and encampments as well.

We will work around the wildlife causing as little disturbance as possible. It does look destructive but in a years’ time there will be an improvement for wildlife and the community.

We would be very grateful for any wildlife records you have on the site for our interpretation panels and records.

Thank you for your concern and passion.

Josh Childs  

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