Thanks to £65,000 funding from the Veolia Environmental Trust through the Landfill Communities Fund, with contributions from Transforming the Trent Valley, Mansfield Building Society Charitable Trust and Willington Parish Council, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has reconnected a five mile walk and created a new viewing platform at Willington Wetlands Nature Reserve.
The funding has enabled the Trust to improve 1250m of existing trackway, create a further 250m of new path and install a bridge over the boundary brook to provide vital missing links.
The new pathway links through to the Trent and Mersey canal creating a a circular 5-mile walk, with improved interpretation signage, way markers and an additional raised viewing platform, allowing visitors access to the surrounding countryside for the first time in over 20 years.
The need for this project was originally highlighted by visitors, local residents, the Willington Footpath and Open Spaces Group, cycling groups and the Green Health Walking Group.