One of Suffolk’s newest business parks is on its way to becoming a welcome natural haven for bats, birds and wildlife, thanks to a special collaboration with a conservation team.
The owners of Riduna Park, at Melton, have announced their unique partnership with Greener Growth, a CIC started five years ago in East Anglia to help transform neglected spaces, improve biodiversity, and bring therapeutic horticulture to individuals in particular need.
A team from the organisation will now be working on site at Riduna Park to create areas of wildflowers and herbs, improve the ecosystem for wildlife, form ideal open spaces for office workers on site to use at lunchtimes, develop plans for raised flowerbeds and a salad vegetable garden, and create a number of hedgehog, bat and bird boxes.
The project will be overseen by Greener Growth’s CEO, Joannah Metcalfe.
She said: “I’m so excited to be starting this relationship with the owners of Riduna Park, because they’re so keen to ensure that their space is an area which protects and encourages wildlife and a stronger ecosystem.
“Our work at Greener Growth started out with the desire to use therapeutic horticulture to teach people in disadvantaged groups about growing food and conserving nature.
“We knew very quickly it was having a profound effect, and so to allow us to continue to fund that work – particularly with schools and similar community groups – we look to partner with corporate organisations, like Riduna, who see benefit in having us do a commercial activity which helps meet their needs and generates a more positive use of their space.”
The Greener Growth team will include highly experienced conservation and horticultural experts, as well as those specialising in construction for outdoor spaces.
Riduna Park’s Project Manager, Katie Emerson, said: “It has always been important to us in the creation of the business park development, that we would be able to find ways of preserving the nature that exists on this site, and that we could continue to provide the kind of spaces where residents in our offices would want to spend a quiet few moments, or take their lunch break.
“Teaming up with Greener Growth is a great fit. We like that as a CIC they have a wider objective around educating people in specific groups and schools through horticultural therapy, but also that they are very understanding of our desire to have a collaboration which can evolve as the site changes.
“Initially, much of the work will revolve around maintenance and preparation, but in the coming months we’re really looking forward to developing some more exciting ideas like a salad vegetable garden – as well as encouraging our office residents to get involved in making or sponsoring their own bird or bat boxes.”
With the first two phases of Riduna Park fully occupied, phase three will now be under way this Spring.
For more information about the Park and its offering, contact Katie on 01394 799 089 or email katie@ridunaholdings.com or enquiries@ridunapark.com
