Green Park Landscape Management

Back in the late 1980’s the original client’s aim was to transform this area of low-lying, poor quality agricultural land into an outstanding business park. The landscape infrastructure was critical to this in creating a unique setting for the buildings, with a potential 198,000 sq m of development. The park includes a 5ha lake, Longwater, a range of existing and new woodland, tree groups and individual trees some with protection orders (TPOs). Longwater has been established to accommodate flood waters with a variation in water levels of up to 2.4 metres. This requires a robust and sustainable marginal planting scheme to protect edges against erosion. A network of statutory and non-statutory paths give pedestrian and cycle access throughout the park. A range of habitats attracts a variety of wildlife, and numerous species of birds.

Team members at PLACE have been involved from the start of this scheme, working through various decades the create the park that exists today.

In 2007 the practice worked closely with ecologists to prepare a unique Green Park Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), which informs management practice and provides scope for evolutionary planting. It also covers detailed working procedures for further enhancement of the Park, including plant selection based on conservation and bio-diversity principles, such as planting wildflower meadows and the expansion of reed beds around Longwater. The site is now home to over 50 bird species as well as deer and badgers.

In the last fifteen years PLACE was asked to study the landscape management of the then semi mature landscape. As new phases continued to be developed out the first phases were starting to mature and require more maintenance. As such PLACE have been commissioned to complete the landscape management of the park ever since. We work alongside the on site maintenance and facilities management teams, providing advice and putting forward proposals to allow the park to establish into the mature verdant business park seen today.

Green Park is a well-established business park that has won national awards, becoming the first ever Biodiversity Benchmark Award winner for such a scheme. It is considered a world-class commercial development in the commercial sector, currently owned by Mapletree.

Client:
Mapletree