School and Community Project - South Wales

Boardwalk repairs underway

Community project work is an important part of any large-scale construction project, offering the opportunity to give something back to the communities we are working in and for staff to feel they are making a difference.

On the South Wales Overhead Line (OHL) Upgrade project, after discussions with the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, we choose a project at Sennybridge Primary School near Brecon. The school has about 120 pupils and owns a small woodland where they run forest school classes and other outdoor activities. At the time, the school were having issues with local dog walkers letting their dogs run free in the area where the forest school classes were held. A pond below the woodlands had become overgrown and in need of some restoration work to “give the frogs a home” to quote one of the pupils.

The children sent over posters explaining the problems and after meeting with the school to discuss their requirements, a plan was formed:

·        To restore the pond and clear the boardwalk area which was to be used for pond dipping;

·        To purchase and install a wildlife-watching hide;

·        To install a new fence to separate the school grounds from the public footpath next to the woods;

·        To create some accessible footpaths to allow pupils with limited mobility and wheelchairs to enjoy the woods;

·        To purchase and install bird and bat boxes in the woodland;

·        To create some planters out of old pieces of culvert pipe and supply the school with wildflower seeds to plant in the spring;

·        To purchase wild daffodil, bluebell and wild garlic bulbs for the pupils to plant in their woodland; and

·        We also decided to buy a hedgehog home and food (the school told us they regularly saw hedgehogs around the grounds) to be sited near the wildlife hide.

The volunteer day was well attended with representatives from both Balfour Beatty and National Grid taking part, as well as representatives from some of our sub-contractors on the scheme. Thanks go to Dave Morgan and his team from D & C Groundtec for providing materials and labour for the wildlife hide base and fencing, and KJ Hire of Swansea for providing plant and equipment.

One of the highlights of the day was arranging with Brecon Beacons National Parks Authority to allow four trainee rangers from the Prince’s Trust to work alongside us and gain valuable experience and insight into conservation and construction. The four participants all seemed to enjoy the day and get a lot out of the experience.

A site visit and inspection from the school’s Eco Council (a group of enthusiastic environmentally minded pupils) gave us a resounding thumbs up and the school were extremely grateful for the generous contributions of time, effort and materials from all concerned throughout the day.

Andrew from Ellendale Environmental and Marie Higginson from Balfour Beatty were invited to attend school assembly the next day and talk to the entire school about the work that had been carried out in the woods. A surprise during the assembly was when Andrew, Marie and the project team were made honorary members of the school’s Eco Council.

Mrs Watts (Head Mistress) , pupils from Sennybridge Primary School, volunteers and the new wildlife hide

Staff from Ellendale, Balfour Beatty, National Grid, D&C Groundtec and Prince’s Trust Volunteers

Andrew, Marie and the team from Brecon Beacons National Park and Prince’s Trust in school assembly