All will soon have access to nature area in North Bersted

The money from the Lottery's Awards for All scheme means all-weather pathways can be installed around the Bersted Brooks.

This means the area north of Rowan Way will be accessible to wheelchair users and families with young children.

The cash was awarded to the Friends of Bersted Brooks. Former chairman Gez Watson said the pathway would answer a lot of peoples' requests.

"The number of visitors has already increased this year but we hope even more people will be encouraged to come and share the treasure we have at Bersted Brooks once the new pathway is laid," she stated.

Work will begin at the 19-hectare site this autumn. The pathway will stretch from the car park off Rowan Way to the eastern boundary of the first of the three fields which make up the brooks and west along the northern hedgerow to the pond and Lara's Bench, named after a former Arun District Council officer, where a turning circle will be created.

Along the pathway, the Friends will be installing low level lecterns to make information about the brooks easily read.

The money will also enable the Friends to continue making a large area of the northernmost field into a sanctuary for ground-nesting birds.

Some 70 species of birds have already been spotted around the site.

The work is to be managed by Arun District Council's parks and greenspace section, which manages the public open space.

The Friends was formed in 2005 to provide community involvement in the then recently-created area of mature trees, hedgerows, ditches, scrub and wetland.

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