Residents across North Lanarkshire are being asked to vote for their favourite environmental projects from a shortlist compiled from public suggestions.
Ideas range from sowing wildflower meadows and installing bird boxes to planting new trees and restoring ponds; with the top five following the current online vote being the first to be progressed in its £50,000 nature restoration fund initiative.
A total of 18 projects are included in the poll after North Lanarkshire Council invited communities to submit ideas to improve nature and biodiversity increasing habitats and greenspaces and helping the local environments “become more resilient to climate change while creating more sustainable areas”.
Each of the 34 suggestions originally made during the participatory budgeting exercise were reviewed to consider whether they would “help nature recover”, be carried out on council land and be practical and achievable.
Those which met the criteria and can become a “deliverable project” have now been divided up into five votes, with residents being asked to select their top preference in each category.
Voters will be asked to choose from additional conservation work at Gartcosh nature reserve, creating a nature corridor of planters near Cumbernauld town centre, increasing plant biodiversity with high-pollen flowers near the town’s roundabouts, or creating a new community area of flowers and shrubs in Moodiesburn.
Rewilding applications to sow wildflowers have been submitted for both Glenmavis and the Allanton & Shotts areas, and are in a voting category with improving an overgrown area and pond around the newly-established Hillrigg allotments near Airdrie, and creating floral areas and diverse habitats at Vics Park in Shotts.
Another voting group contains proposals for conservation projects at Greenhead nature reserve, improving an existing pond near Wishawhill Woods, planting and creating habitats at Windsor Park in Holytown or improving a woodland walk in Newarthill.
Three ideas are on offer in Motherwell, which are to create a bog garden within George Street park, introduce new planting and visitor signage to the Dalzell Estate woodland walk, and to introduce bird and bat boxes plus planting at Shields Glen; while the final voting group covers projects which would apply across North Lanarkshire – to create wildflower meadows, install bird and bat boxes, and to plant trees across the area.
Nicole Paterson, who is the council’s head of environmental assets, said: “There’s already some great, positive work happening to restore nature across North Lanarkshire and it’s encouraging to see the interest and enthusiasm from local communities to continue this.
“We were very pleased with the ideas that were suggested and these will contribute to the success of our biodiversity action plan, and now we’re asking members of the public to choose five which will be delivered using money awarded to the council from the nature restoration fund.”
Current environmental projects in North Lanarkshire include tree planting, with forthcoming developments at Calderbank in Airdrie and at Palacerigg country park; and a wildflower pilot project to develop new areas in local parks.
The call for suggestions and online vote are part of the authority’s participatory budgeting process, aiming to “direct resources where most needed, allowing communities to have a say in how public money is spent”.
Online voting runs until September 30 and winning projects will be announced on October 17.
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