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North Cave Wetlands Nature Reserve

    We work with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to restore Breedon’s North Cave Quarry and turn it into an extension of the North Cave Wetlands Nature Reserve. It’s a fascinating site for bird life. This picture shows the recently planted reedbeds which are one of the key habitats we are creating. In 2023 a large ‘donor reedbed’ site we designed was built with the help of the YWT site manager and Mires Beck Nursery, a local charity who work with the community and ensure the common reeds are of extremely local provenance!. These donor reedbeds act as a ‘growing on nursery’ for future planting across the quarry as it is restored.  This is just one aspect of the work we’ve done at North Cave, from masterplanning, restoration design, earthworks contract specifications and bills, to detailed water management systems, planting plans, fencing plans and sourcing bird hides.

    Dry Rigg Quarry

      Helping Tarmac achieve planning consent for an extension at Dry Rigg Quarry within the Yorkshire Dales National Park in April 2023. This quarry produces stone with exceptional wearing and skid-resistant properties, so met stringent tests to grant consent. We carefully considered the landscape and visual impacts of the proposal and provided detailed mitigation proposals including a biodiversity-led restoration scheme and long-term habitat management plan.

      Biodiversity Action Plans

        We have created four site-based Biodiversity Action Plans so far for Breedon as part of their Sustainability Strategy. We check the approved planning consent and ecological surveys to date to create targets which are right for the site and the location, and work with the quarry managers to make sure the targets set are practical and achievable.

        Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment work

          As part of our Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment work we carefully select the appropriate visualisation techniques. These can be anything from a simple marked-up photograph or a sight-line section, to a more complex photomontage such as this one for Dry Rigg Quarry in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This shows what people walking on the quarry’s perimeter footpath can expect to see once the quarry is restored to its final wetland habitats.

          Holme Hall

            At Holme Hall Quarry near Doncaster we help Breedon keep on top of their restoration, providing muckshift volumes, muckshift contract plans, planting plans, specifications, bills of quantities, advice on landscape management and increasing biodiversity and future development plans.

            Gill Mill Quarry

              Providing ongoing award-winning restoration design for Smiths Bletchington at Gill Mill Quarry near Witney. Working closely with the RSPB in the detailed implementation. Smiths Bletchington won the National Biodiversity Award in 2015 for its Planned Restoration which was designed by ESP. Photo credit to Kev Daws (Grey Arrows Drone Club). Click on the YouTube video below to learn more about the scheme.