East Midlands Railway (EMR) is funding a biodiversity project at Hucknall station in Nottinghamshire designed to create a thriving natural environment.

The project aims to deliver a biodiversity net gain by 2035 through improving biodiversity at the station by turning a previously uninviting urban space into a thriving and welcoming green gateway.

Earlier this year, an ecological assessment carried out at Hucknall station was the basis for a plan that included three ‘promenade planters’ to host mini-meadows and two larger planters to be incorporated into a new wellbeing bench area. The result will provide much-needed space for relaxation at the same time as delivering significant habitat value.

Funding of £12,000 was secured from East Midlands Railway for volunteers, school groups, and local organisations to install the bespoke planters, which will support pollinators and native wildflowers. Among the species planted are those typical of local Sites of Special Scientific Interest, including wood anemone, wild garlic, yellow archangel, giant bellflower, yellow rattle, great burnet, cowslip, pignut, betony and lady’s mantle. These are all native and wildlife-friendly, and help go towards a more joined-up landscape for nature across the wider region.

The project at Hucknall is the first in a wider project to make similar wildlife improvements at other stations, and is part of East Midlands Railway’s wider ‘Getting There Greener’ strategy. It has been developed in collaboration with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust (DWT), EMR Community Rail, and the Robin Hood Line Community Rail Partnership.

Volunteers, school groups and local organisations will help deliver elements of the work, including constructing a bug hotel and painting the planters, while ongoing activities will support wellbeing.

More information about EMR’s sustainability initiatives is online at Getting There Greener.

The Robin Hood Line was nominated for awards in this year’s Community Rail Awards in the ‘Involving Children and Young People’ and ‘Community Creative Projects & Station Arts’ categories.

Network Rail has long realised the value of biodiversity, and in 2021, it announced major steps to preserve and develop lineside biodiversity across all 53,000 hectares of land under its care.