Major works open up new 'routes' in Whitehaven area woodland

The £2.3 million project aims to benefit wildlife and the community in and around Moresby Parks, near Whitehaven where the Walkmill Community Woodland site is located.

The works aimed to create a 'more naturally flowing river' and to make improvements to the site infrastructure. 

Councillor Jeanette Forster, for Hillcrest and Hensingham Ward, said: "I think this will be a great thing for the local area. 

"It's amazing to see the community coming together to make these sorts of things possible."

The footpaths were in a mixed state with some well-used but others inaccessible as they were unsurfaced and boggy.

Three new bridges have also been constructed to improve access to the restored footpaths and move across boggy areas more easily. 

There are seven new ponds at the site, which are said to benefit the woodland and wildlife. 

They help capture water from the drainage of the new paths and one pond will act as a natural flood management feature with the capacity to hold higher levels of water during high rainfall; there are also plans to build a pond dipping platform in the future. 

The river restoration work involved removing the concrete beds and banks from 280 metres of the river channel. 

The land next to the river will be planted with wildflowers and will have a new unofficial footpath.

The woodland's previous state was dense with trees of a similar age. The trees have been thinned out to allow new trees to grow, with the added light helping the wildflowers to blossom. 

The works have been made possible by the general funding of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sellafield’s Social Six Multiplied, and the Environment Agency. 

A West Cumbria Rivers Trust spokesperson added: "The Walkmill team would like to particularly thank the contractors Ian Cannon Ltd for the amazing work carried out along with thanking the local community for being patient whilst the works were going on."