A nature and wildlife group has received a £500 donation from homebuilder Bellway to help inform people about the nature surrounding them in Aston Clinton.

The Wild Estone Grange group is on a mission to protect and boost biodiversity in and around Bellway’s completed Estone Grange development in Aston Clinton, and it wants to put up three information boards to let people know more about nature in the area.

The group of volunteers has been working with The National Lottery Heritage funded Community WildBelt Project to manage around four acres of wildflower meadows, ponds, watercourses and hedges at Estone Grange.

Bellway has now donated £500 towards the £4,500 cost of installing the information boards around the site.

Katy Todd, leader of the Wild Estone Grange, said: “Deer, badgers and foxes live nearby. The hedges and watercourses are busy wildlife corridors. The ponds, managed sensitively without machinery, are flourishing environments for invertebrates, frogs, toads and importantly insects.

“We are privileged to have nature on our doorstep.  But it doesn’t just happen. Not everyone, visitors and residents, are aware of the nature on our doorstep, or of the Wild Estone Grange group of volunteers or the Chiltern Society’s Community WildBelt Project.

“There is a need for well-designed notice boards, strategically placed, to inform people about the nature around them and what to look out for, the importance of careful management, how they can become involved and, importantly, where they should report sightings.”

The information boards will be made by the Wendover-based Lindengate Charity and will be high-quality sun-proof and waterproof boards with oak surrounds.

Sales Director for Bellway Northern Home Counties, Luke Southgate, said: “The information boards will be a great way of keeping residents and visitors informed about the rich wildlife they can experience locally and how the Wild Estone Grange volunteers are helping to nurture biodiversity.

“Although we have finished construction at Estone Grange, we are very happy to support Wild Estone Grange and its work looking after the wonderful natural heritage of the area. I hope our donation gets the ball rolling on fundraising for the information boards and that they are soon finished and in place.”

As part of the planning permission for the development, Bellway retained much of the existing hedgerow, trees and a pond within the Estone Grange site, as well as planting new trees and hedgerows, establishing new areas of wildflowers and wildflower grassland, creating a new pond and installing bat and bird boxes and hedgehog domes.

While the development at Estone Grange is complete, Bellway Northern Home Counties is building new homes elsewhere in Buckinghamshire as well as in Bedfordshire and the wider region. To find out more visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/northern-home-counties.