Client:
Lancashire County Council & Wyre Council
Contractors:
Balfour Beatty
Project:
Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme, Fylde Coastline, Lancashire
Date:
July 2016 – May 2018
Size:
28,000m²
Following four years of construction the Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme was officially opened on the 1st June 2018. The two-kilometre sea defence wall will now protect over 7,000 properties from flooding, with the final part of this ambitious project being the creation of Larkholme Grasslands ecology park.
With work on the sea wall defences already well underway in 2015 and 2016, the wildflower charity Landlife (no longer in existence) collected wildflower seeds from the existing grassland area to ensure the conservation and continuation of rare, local species.
Following several years of construction work, the grasslands required careful and sensitive rejuvenation, and Wyre Council contacted the Wildflower Turf team in early 2016 to request assistance.
In close consultation with Wyre Council and Lancashire County Council, Wildflower Turf Ltd incorporated the native coastal seeds collected by Landlife into bespoke species blends and supplied three different types of customised mixes of Wildflower Turf to the project.
‘Swale’, ‘Coastal Grassland’, and ‘Bee-Friendly’ were the three resulting bespoke blends produced, with the Bee-Friendly mix installed in prominent sites and along pathways and key border areas to ensure dynamic impact.
The size of the grassland restoration project itself, coupled with the ongoing construction of the sea defence scheme and prevailing coastal weather conditions saw the installation of the turf occurring over a number of months at intervals between June 2017 and May 2018.
As well as contributing in terms of biodiversity, the resultant grassland area will play an important future role in retaining any over-topping of water during extreme weather events, effectively become a secondary line of defence.
Locals and visitors alike have been delighted with the rejuvenation of this important ecological area and the preservation of this Biological Heritage Site is now assured. The rejuvenated grasslands blend in beautifully with the re-formed landscape and birds and invertebrates alike have quickly populated the area.
