Rivendale Holiday Park, Derbyshire

Pre-development the site, an existing holiday park, was dominated by a mixture of low and moderate quality grasslands, with woodland belts and a number of ponds, resulting in the site having a relatively high biodiversity score.

Our challenge was to design a scheme that would deliver a net gain, whilst still meeting the needs of our client. Our main aim was to enhance the existing habitats on site, and to create new ones, which were in keeping with the local landscape character of the Peak District National Park. 

Taking an integrated approach, our ecologists and landscape architects developed a unique mitigation and enhancement scheme, that would simultaneously provide a biodiversity net gain, whilst still meeting the needs of the client and the many protected species present. 

We designed and delivered a bespoke grassland wildflower turf mix, in keeping with the local character of the area, along with enhancing retained areas of the existing grassland while providing mitigation measures for great crested newt, badgers and bats. Other contributing factors to the positive net gain score included enhancements to the existing ponds, the creation of 6 new ponds, and significant amounts of woodland and tree planting.

The above enhancements successfully contributed to the site providing an 11% biodiversity net gain, when compared with the site, pre-development. These habitats will have to be monitored, maintained and managed for their biodiversity benefit for at least the next 25 years.