Barry Action for Nature, a local environmental group, has completed a project that aims to return wildlife to Barry's most ecologically depleted green space.

The group received the full "Development Package for Community Organisations" from the charity Keep Wales Tidy as part of their Local Places for Nature fund.

The package includes:

A wildlife garden

-40m2 of wildflower turf

-Five native fruit trees

-Wildlife friendly tree pack (105 trees)

-Habitat boxes and bug hotels

-Two benches made of recycled plastic (1.2m wide)

-Two raised bed made of wooden sleepers (approximately 2.4m x 10m each)

-Native pollinator friendly plants including shrubs, bulbs, and climbing plants.

-Trellis

-Storage container (1.57m x 1.47m)

-Variety of hand tools to install and maintain garden

-Books and ID charts for wildlife surveys Sustainable drainage system

-Two SuDS specific planters (1.6m x 0.6m). This will require a building with down pipes.

-Two raised bed made of wooden sleepers (approximately 2.4m x 10m each)

-Native tree pack (105 trees)

-Five apple trees

-20m2 of wildflower turf (SuDS specific)

-Variety of hand tools to install and maintain garden. Community food growing area

-Five native fruit trees

-Two raised beds made of wooden sleepers (approximately 2.4m x 1m)

-Allotment seed collection

-Fruiting pot plants

-Fruiting shrubs

-40m2 of wildflower turf

-50m of fencing

-Greenhouse (1.97m x 1.97m)

-Water butt

-Compost bin

-Path creation (ten metres)

-Tool store (1.57m x 1.43m)

-Bench made of recycled plastic (1.2m wide)

-Variety of hand tools to install and maintain garden The project began in October and was carried out by a small army of volunteers. Planting, turfing and raised bed-building work ended this week. Robert Curtis, Chairman of Barry Action for Nature, told Nub News how the scheme came to be. "Last year we carried out a survey of all of Barry's parks and we classified them according to their benefit to nature - mature trees, hedging, wildflowers, ponds, that sort of thing," he said. "We had about 20 classifications and Alexandra Gardens came at the bottom. Rather than just criticising the council, we thought we should work with the council to change that. "When I saw the scheme, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to improve nature in the park," he added. "It will take about twenty years, but the park will be transformed from a grass-turfed desert to a tree-lined, beautiful part for wildlife and people." The project is the group's first since the pandemic began. Robert says that although COVID made the installation process more difficult, it also highlighted the value of urban biodiversity. "It wasn't the easiest project due to social-distancing and mask-wearing but we've shown that we won't let COVID beat us," he said. "Nature benefits people as well. One thing the COVID crisis has show us is that nature helps our mental health and general well-being. We're part of nature, not separate from it. "It is clear that we have decimated our wildlife over the last 30-40 years - and that's my life time. We really need to reverse that trend and that's why Barry For Nature was formed and that's why we want to make it a greener and more wildlife friendly town."