I’m pleased to say that the extension to the Moor Green Lakes Car Park is now complete. On busy days visitors and volunteers were often turned away as the original car park was full, so it’s a great improvement with around 12 more spaces.
New extended car park
This is the culmination of a 2-year project where we have worked closely with the Moor Green Lakes Volunteer Group (MGLG) to support their project, offering our expertise including drawing up the technical specification to go out to tender.
This valuable project proved to be quite complex, with lots of design work prior to MGLG securing the funding. For example to protect the mature oaks a cellweb sub-base was used under the car park. This plastic webbing grid is filled with washed gravel to spread the load and reduce compaction of the tree root plates. The top dressing of hoggin binds together but is also permeable to reduce run-off.
New entrance and cunning gate
The new entrance is much more inviting for visitors who no longer have to dodge barriers. Designing the clever vehicle gates caused much amusement of my colleagues, with us driving around cones at Ash Lock to ascertain that we could get our longest trailer in. The double gates are set at right angles to allow vehicles to access both the MGL track and the horse paddock, with only a single gate width off the car park to maximise car parking spaces.
Thank you to all the hard work of the MGLG, especially Adrian, and also to Jenny and my predecessor Andrew. It’s great to the site become much more accessible.
Senior Ranger Stuart
BlackwaterValleyCountryside 