NATIONAL Highways and The Wildlife Trusts have joined forces to launch a new £6 million Network for Nature programme. 

It will be used to improve habitats across the North West of England benefitting people, nature and wildlife.

The projects will help create, restore and connect places for wildflowers, trees and wildlife, where the environment has been impacted by activities from previous road building. Natural solutions such as wetlands and reedbeds will help filter polluted run-off from roads.

One project will support wild and diverse pollinators including bumblebees, beetles, and moths through planting wildflower meadows close to urban housing estates near Penrith.

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Alan Shepherd, National Highways’ Regional Director for the North West, said: "We’re delighted the region is sharing in this new Network for Nature fund.

"Over the last few years we’ve led the way in the North West in demonstrating how we can improve bio-diversity alongside our motorways and major A roads. 

"Our ground-breaking partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust and its Get Cumbria Buzzing initiative has helped breathe new life into our roadside verges – particularly in enhancing habitats for vital pollinator species."

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To help fight climate change and store carbon, peatland bisected by construction of the M6 will be restored in an area of badly damaged blanket bog, which needs re-wetting.

Damaged and dried out peat releases carbon dioxide, increases flood risk, and reduces habitat for wildlife. The work will increase cottongrass, bilberry, cranberry, and bog rosemary and attract golden plover, short-eared owl, and snipe.

National Highways, the company responsible for England’s motorways and major A-roads, has awarded nearly £6 million from its Environment and Wellbeing designated fund into the Network for Nature programme.

Overall, twenty-six biodiversity projects will enhance, restore and create more than 1,700 acres (690 hectares) of woodlands, grasslands, peatlands and wetlands across every region of England, with 5 sitting in the North West of England.

In England, the roadside estate is vast and yet is adjacent to some of our most precious habitats.

When situated alongside linear infrastructure, such as motorways, habitats can create crucial corridors for pollinating insects, birds and small mammals, enabling wildlife to move through the wider landscape.