The recent collaboration between the Council and key stakeholders, including London Wildlife Trust and Royal Parks, is fulfilling a commitment outlined in Hounslow’s Nature Recovery Action Plan (NRAP), which was initially adopted in the summer of 2023.
This partnership is crucial to the borough’s efforts to address climate action and mitigate the biodiversity crisis.
The NRAP will help create improved and better-connected habitats for wildlife and plants across Hounslow while improving public access to nature, developing resilience to climate change, and helping to clean air and water.
Hounslow will target improved engagement with activators, community groups, landowners, and residents and use the newly formed Board to ensure a shared responsibility towards the borough’s nature recovery.
Introducing the launch of the Board, Councillor Salman Shaheen, cabinet member for recreation public spaces, said:
“The Nature Recovery Action Plan is a key part of the Council’s commitment to greening our borough, preserving threatened animal and plant species, and improving residents’ health and wellbeing by bringing them closer to nature.
“It follows on from our work to build a borough that is 45% green, plant over 20,000 trees, and transform wasteland into orchards, community gardens and allotments and pair them with local schools so children can learn about biodiversity and sustainability.
“This is the next step on a long road, but we will not walk it alone. I am grateful to all our stakeholders and partners for joining us on the journey. Together, we can ensure Hounslow is a borough in which our residents thrive because nature flourishes.”
A key NRAP deliverable that is already underway is the Urban Greening initiative. The project is implementing new bug hotels, bat and bird boxes, new wildflower meadows, and pathways. These creations will improve public access to nature across the borough, with Pevensey Road Open Space, Lampton Park, and Hanworth Air Park benefitting a few of the sites.
The borough-wide removal of invasive non-native species (INNS) and commencement of Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) surveys are also essential to the plan delivery and will begin in summer 2024.
Parks, Transport, Hounslow Highways, Housing, and Environmental Strategy representatives make up the Council’s internal Board representation. There are more than 40 partners, including Lampton Services Greenspace, Gunnersbury Park and Museum, and Spelthorne Council.
The Nature Recovery Action Plan (NRAP 2023-2028) is part of Hounslow’s updated Greener Borough Framework,
and sits alongside the adopted Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy (GBI) in November 2022.
The plan recognises that groups in the borough are working towards the same goal of nature recovery, and Council alignment with relevant groups is key. Progress against actions listed in the NRAP will be reported annually to the Place Programme Board and the Cabinet as part of the Climate Annual Update.
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