A report updating members on the results of extending the re-wilding experiment and on the recommended next steps contained in the draft updated Wildflower Plan.

Further to Minute 8 of the meeting held on 15 December 2020, the Executive Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report which gave details of the Rewilding project results to date, the operational changes that had been necessary to achieve the results and set out the recommended next steps contained in the draft updated Wildflower Plan which was attached as an Appendix to the report.

The report explained that following recommendations in the Wildflower Plan, these changes had been made in 2021

·               Some sites had been sown with locally sourced wildflowers and cut only at the end of the season to allow establishment;

·               Additional marginal rewilding (changing the mowing regime around parks boundaries and margins) had been trialled at 12 locations in parks, adding around 2ha (5%) to the current area, 41 hectares, of conservation grassland already managed by the Council;

·               The Council had agreed to work with business partners to create enhanced-flowering, wild-looking commercial centre schemes that would raise the profile of the rewilding initiatives and contribute to refocusing perceptions of Reading as a ‘green/wild town’.

The report also explained that an assessment of the Year 2 programme was included in the revised Wildflower Plan attached in the Appendix.  However, monitoring carried out over the course of the year indicated that there was public support for marginal rewilding in parks and that there was no noticeable improvement in species diversity from sowing wildflower seed on poorer sites.  It was too early to assess the effectiveness of the BID-funded ‘enhanced’ schemes in Reading, because the flower-rich turf had only been laid in the autumn and would be assessed over the extended flowering season from spring to autumn 2022.  The planned change from an annual cut-and-collect to a three-times-a-season cut-and-collect on those sites with less diversity of flora had not taken place because of difficulty in securing the right machinery and a bid had been made to purchase small cut-and-collect mowing equipment to enable this to start in 2022.  A further result of the rewilding project had been the spontaneous involvement of residents in the creation of local wild areas

The appended Wildflower Plan recommended the continuation of the current programme on highways verges and in parks.  The Plan also included looking at the margins of allotments sites for future rewilding, as not only did allotments sites offer potential for biodiversity enhancement, but there were clear synergies between habitat for pollinators and the presence of pollinators for growing fruit and vegetables.

Resolved:

(1)      That the progress of the Re-wilding experimental project in 2021 be noted;

(2)      That the recommendations set out in the Wildflower Plan be endorsed.