Electricity firm goes green for the day supporting Croydon’s biodiversity – South London News

By Kelsey McCabe

Volunteers from an electricity company spent a day tending the land around one of its substations to encourage biodiversity and attract wildlife.

Fifteen of UK Power Networks employees used one of their annual paid volunteering days to clear invasive holly and laurel undergrowth, remove litter and install bird boxes near one of the company’s substations in Croydonwith the aim of improving the quality of the chalk meadows in the area and conserving the habitat.

Mathew Frith, director of policy and research at London Wildlife Trust, said: “This part of Croydon supports fantastic biodiversity in chalk grassland and woodland habitats, but without management, chalk grassland can lose its value through the invasion of shrubs such as cherry laurel. .”

The volunteering work was carried out as part of UK Power Networks’ Donate a Day scheme, which gives employees two paid volunteering days a year to give back to their community.

Volunteers started by creating chalk scrapes – open areas of land that provide space for quality vegetation to grow. They then populated the open field with a mix of native seeds that included wild basil, daisy and wild marjoram.

Volunteers also stacked wood and hedges to attract wildlife and installed bird boxes suitable for native bird species, including blue tits and Eurasian robins.

Joanna Collinson, risk and assurance adviser at UK Power Networks: “It was very rewarding to use one of the donations a day to improve biodiversity on one of our sites as nature and wider environmental issues are important to us and are growing. sustainability and wildlife concerns.

“Our team also benefited a lot, a day with nature and teamwork brought us closer together and we had lots of laughs and fun throughout the day.”

Pictured above: UK Power Networks employees in a car park St. Nicholas Hospice cleaning up for a previous Donate a Day event (Image: Barney Riley)

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