At the time of conception of this plan, the state of the UK’s environment and biodiversity is less than desirable. Baseline assessments following two decades of environmental monitoring since the initial convention of biological diversity (1992), as part of the Millennium ecosystem assessment (2000); show the significant extent of decline. Natural green infrastructure has dropped below 10% and 93% of Britain’s woodlands are considered in poor ecological condition. The need for radical action is ever more pressing. New international strategies stemming from the UN’s Eco-system services framework, have paved the way for national governance to prioritise the environment in new developments. Of particular interest to Garon Park is to ensure a 10% increase in species abundance and a movement toward 30% natural green infrastructure. The Local Nature Recovery Strategy is the mode of delivery for local authorities, assembling knowledge, skills and the finest information and data available will be made possible by responsible authorities providing local leadership.

The Norman Garon Trust land represents the final frontier of natural green infrastructure on the fringe of the city’s urban spawl. It is our duty as stewards of the land to protect this area and make it a haven for wildlife, supporting both the natural world and the community’s health and wellbeing. The next closest greenspace(s) of a similar size and function is some 5 miles away at Belfairs Park, or 4 miles away at Gunners Park, both managed under the Essex Wildlife Trust.

In a recent survey conducted with our site users, we discovered that many people were concerned about the negative impact of climate change and although people are aware of key terminology such as; biodiversity, Ecosystem services, National park and nature reserve, very few use these terms regularly. Those that are aware of the site’s conservation efforts, made some positive comments and stated that more publications and development of specific areas for nature, would help to encourage further engagement in the park’s biodiversity and conservation efforts. Garon Park’s dedication to promoting environmental awareness and supporting biodiversity, rings through it’s multifaceted green infrastructure plan. The main challenge is the very nature of the site, although offering extensive facilities to support health and wellbeing, it is set up for amenity usage and finding the balance between this and meeting the 30% natural green infrastructure target is a tall order. However, it can be realised by harnessing the local ecological network, creating corridors along boundaries, in the form of hedgerows, and ecological focus areas in the form of woodland copses and wildflower meadows.

These ambitious goals will not be possible without the tireless efforts of our dedicated team of volunteers. They are instrumental to the day-to-day tasks that are required to maintain our conservation features, engage in mass participation surveying to monitor our impact, grow the very food they eat for lunches and support our events that promote environmental awareness. Celebrating their work is of up most priority.

This also creates significant opportunity to support mental health in the local area, as actively participating in nature has profound benefits to mental health. Disconnect with nature is a significant driver of mental health decline in the UK and we have seen firsthand, through our work experience programmes, a shift in peoples outlook following engagement in the many environmental based projects on site. This is particularly important when considering the lack of greenspace for our young people, where in Southend, some 50% of primary schools have little or no access to greenspace, which has shown to also have a detrimental impact on cognitive development. Garon Park with its extensive grounds, can support this lack of provision.

Greenspace has many health benefits, from clean air to clean water, aesthetic value and sense of place, among many more. A loss in this fantastic resource within cities such as Southend would be detrimental to both the environment and the people that reside here. This is why Wellbeing at Garon Park’s green infrastructure plan is so important. Future developments will see the plan’s expansion across the whole of Norman Garon Trust land, working in partnership with other organisations such as the Golf club, to create a centre of excellence for conservation in Southend.

Wellbeing At Garon Park (WBGP), run by the Garon Park Community Interest Company (the CIC), describes itself as a charitable incorporated organisation ‘with the purpose of providing sustainable facilities that can be used to improve local health and wellbeing, as well as enhancing the beauty, biodiversity and environmental value of the 30-acre Garon Park site in Southend on Sea.’

As part of fulfilling this purpose, it is necessary that the CIC takes measures to both reduce the harms of its site’s management and built environment as well as maximising the ecological value of its remaining land through carbon storage and sequestration in a way that is consistent with providing for its other functions.

This report suggests that while the CIC has made significant steps to minimise its environmental harms, these are not currently at the level required to suggest the site is carbon neutral. Indirect emissions in the form of transport emissions associated with the site by far constitute its largest environmental harm. In addition to improvements relating to efficiency and waste, reducing the site’s environmental harms can be aided by the introduction of a solar array across the site which could allow for on-site annual electricity production of approximately 137,000kWh.

This report also demonstrates the site’s value as a carbon store, and suggests there will be embellished sequestration potential in the future owing to the ongoing maturing of higher value wildlife currently being established.

One of our core objectives is to support and enhance biodiversity. We do this through our conservation plan and through promoting environmental awareness in the local area. One of the most important components to delivering an effective conservation plan is to understand and record environmental impact and one of the most effective ways of doing this is to monitor biodiversity, looking for an increase or a shift in species composition and diversity.

This is not an easy task with such a small team as we have. As such we are developing and implementing a mass participation style monitoring programme that will simultaneously record our impact as well as promoting environmental awareness in the local community.

One species is particularly important to us, the Shrill Carder bee, which is classified endangered but has been sighted in and around the Southend area, with limited distribution across the UK.

This represents an opportunity for us to promote habitat and forage for this species and other invertebrates. Mass participation surveying is becoming a valuable tool in a new wave of citizen science aimed at significantly reducing the cost and resource needs of important scientific study such as species surveying. We are developing some site-specific training material for participants to follow (Click this link).

We will set up a series of monitoring stations around the site that will each have a bug hotel (built by volunteers) to monitor invertebrates such as beetles and artificial cover objects to monitor reptiles.

We would like to purchase a couple of dedicated tablets for surveying that we can load all of the material on to as well as a platform to record findings.

Pollinating invertebrates such as bees and wasps, require the development a Bee Walk and we have been working with the British Bumblebee Conservation Trust, to create an effective transect that our volunteers can walk to monitor bees etc and we can link into their Bee walk Programme. This project will tie in with our new info boards and enable quick access to material, give details about species and other features on the site.