National Grid support is helping children at Archdeacon Griffiths Church in Wales Primary School, Llyswen, develop ‘green fingers’.
The school is developing its wildlife area, which has been overgrown and previously not accessible to the children. It is one of a number of projects supported through National Grid’s Community Involvement Programme, which aims to provide a legacy for communities on completion of construction of the Felindre to Tirley natural gas pipeline.
“We are working towards our ECO Schools Green Flag,” said headteacher Louise Simms. “Developing the school’s wildlife area to encourage plants and animals is key to this, as we will be able to use it in both our science and geography lessons.”
Parents and children have helped in the clearance of brambles and weeds, cutting back shrubs and trees and creating a bark footpath around the area. The project has proved so popular that a Gardening Club for school children has been established specifically to develop the wildlife area.
The next tasks include improving the pond, planting spring bulbs and placing bird boxes and feeders on the site.
”In addition to becoming an ECO School, we are also aiming to become a Forest School, and our wildlife area will be instrumental in achieving both accolades,” said Louise. “Without the funding from National Grid, we would not be able to achieve either.”
A temporary site office for the construction of National Grid’s 196km natural gas pipeline was established at Llyswen, with around 80 staff based there at the height of construction activity. The pipeline, which runs from Felindre, near Swansea to Tirley in Gloucestershire, passes to the south of the village.
National Grid project manager Brian Smethurst said: “We appreciate that our construction works have been an inconvenience to the communities along the route, especially the increased volume and size of traffic using the local roads. This was particularly true at Llyswen, even though we used the pipeline ‘spread’ for as much construction traffic as possible, as it was a base for a large number of staff and a wide variety of plant and equipment.
“Supporting school projects such as this is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the community for their tolerance and understanding.”
Reinstatement of the land through which the pipeline passes in the area is almost complete, and the temporary Llyswen site office has now been closed, the portacabins removed and the field reinstated. The Felindre to Tirley natural gas pipeline is part of National Grid’s Milford Haven Gas Connection Projects which, when complete, will be able to provide around 20% of the country’s gas supplies.
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For further media information only please call Dianne Owen, Project Communications, on 07836 668522