Littledown Greenway Bournemouth
Published 15 July 2025; updated 30 June 2026
The Project
300 hectares, 9 different land managers, 1 shared goal – to connect and manage the greenspaces of Littledown Greenway for nature and the community.
The Littledown Greenway is a multi-stakeholder wildlife corridor project running from the River Stour in the east to Boscombe Overcliff Nature Reserve in the south. By engaging various landowners with nature conservation green space management techniques, we can enhance this 3.7km nature corridor.
Nature corridors are vital for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem health by connecting fragmented habitats. They enable wildlife to move freely between areas, supporting essential activities like foraging, breeding, and migration. This connectivity helps prevent local extinctions, enhances genetic diversity, and improves the overall resilience of ecosystems.
Early wins
A schools greening project at the three schools within the greenway – St Peters Primary, Avonbourne and Iford Academy (Tregonwell) – has included the planting of >1km of native hedging! At one of those schools, St Peters Primary, a wildlife pond was installed and planted by students during school time. During the February 2025 half term break 450 native whips (100m of hedging) were planted with the help of students, parents and staff (45 attendees).
Iford and Avonbourne have had land management plans drawn up, which include tree planting, relaxed mowing regimes and pond creation.
BCP Parks Operations teams, the BH Live team and The Parks Foundation have worked together to discuss longer term management of the greenspace at Littledown Park (image above), resulting in them adopting a reduced mowing regime with cut and collect.
This is a project in its infancy, where an opportunity to make an impact has been identified and now further funding will be sought to continue the work.
A promising future
We’ve spoken with the majority of the landowners and managers in the greenway. Everyone is on board with improving the land they manage and is supportive of BCP’s Nature Pledge.
The J.P. Morgan site at Chaseside is notable for the good practice that is already happening – with hedgehog release work, wildflower meadows planted, veteran oaks being looking after, nature activities, and active volunteering by employees across the BCP region.
Littledown Valley is managed by the council in a very nature positive way, and the teams at Bournemouth Hospital and Iford Golf Centre are committed to improving their grounds for the community and nature.
As resources allow, the council and The Parks Foundation will continue working on this greenway to improve connections for nature as well as the thousands of people each year who use this busy corridor to travel to work, visit the hospital, the Vitality Stadium or to access the Stour Valley and beyond.
Key stakeholders involved in the project include:
- BHLive Littledown Park
- NHS – Royal Bournemouth Hospital
- JP Morgan
- BCP Council
- Gloucester Road residents
- St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Avonbourne Academies, and Iford Academy (Tregonwell)
The map above is borrowed from the Stour Valley strategy document
Project details
Budget TBC
Funding TBC
Project Lead BCP Council Parks Projects team with The Parks Foundation
T. 01202 123123
E. greenspaces@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
The Parks Foundation
We work with The Parks Foundation, an independent charity, on nature-based community-building projects & events in many BCP parks and green spaces.
