Manchester United star Marcus Rashford has a new goal for the next 100 seasons – to become a green-fingered wildlife warrior.
The striker has presented a 36-page plan to his local council that will ensure the wildlife at his new £2.5million home will be protected from spring through to winter over the next 25 years.
England ace Rashford plans to create meadows and grasslands for the creatures to thrive in, protecting mammals like voles and hedgehogs as well as nesting birds such as robins, chaffinches, wrens and blackbirds.
A source said: “Marcus is doing everything he can to ensure his new build doesn’t disrupt the environment.
“There are strict rules around large scale developments and he’s not putting a foot wrong.”
The England ace – awarded an MBE for his campaign to provide free meals for needy kids at the height of the pandemic – is having a five-bedroom mansion built on the site of a former golf course in Cheshire.
Looking after the woodland surrounding the house was part of the planning permission agreement.
Documents submitted to East Cheshire District Council show the star’s mansion will be ringed with walkways through groves of ornamental trees, before the gardens give way to open meadows and grasslands with mature trees and hedgerows.
Rashford’s plan says work on hedgerows will bolster “the extent of cover they provide and increase their capacity to support breeding birds and small mammals”. It also promises to foster “a species-rich habitat”.
Details of how often the trees and plants will be pruned, watered and fertilised were included in the document, as well as plans to replace stock as it dies away.
Rashford, 24, bought the land in 2020. He currently lives in a £1.85m six-bedroom home nearby.
His new property will include a basement with wine cellar, indoor swimming pool, gym, plant room, games room and chill-out area.
Rashford, said to be worth £16m, applied for planning permission through his company, MUCS Properties Ltd.
The footballer made his first-team debut with Manchester United in 2016.
He was still a teenager when he moved his family into an £800,000 pad near the humble home where he grew up in the Manchester suburb of Wythenshawe.
