Sustainable Warwickshire

Ruby’s Yard Community Interest Company in Atherstone will soon be able to create a brighter and greener environment thanks for Warwickshire County Council’s Green Shoots Community Climate Change Fund.

The Green Shoots funding will enable Ruby’s Yard to make the following additions to its Atherstone Site:

• Provide solar lights along the path leading from the toilet block to the picnic/mindfulness/camping area at the rear of the site; and
• To plant and grow native hedging alongside the wooden jetty and planting beds and improve the habitat for wildlife, especially insects and birds.

Ruby’s Yard CIC is currently transforming a former commercial boatyard on the Coventry Canal, at the top of the Atherstone Locks, into a green community space where local groups especially those serving young people, can enjoy the canal, experience the great outdoors and learn about the immense value of the natural world.

Ruby’s Yard have a 10-year lease agreement, planning permission and grant funding from Sport England to develop this site for outdoor sports and recreation. Current facilities include a toilet and shower block, landscaped area, car parking and secure boundary fencing. Planning permissions on the site include 8 am to 8 pm weekday opening + 8 camping weekends and the site has direct access onto the North Arden Heritage Trail.

The Canoe Foundation have recently awarded Ruby’s Yard a grant to improve the slipway and provide a new base /destination for paddle trails along this extensive and beautiful, lock-free canal network.

Ruby’s Yard are planning to fully involve local community organisations and volunteers already associated with the venture, such as Warwickshire Young Carers, The Princes Trust, Duke of Edinburgh Award students and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust in the process of hedge planting. It is hoped that these activities will raise awareness of environmental issues, provide a unique experience of habitat creation and offer a future focus for small-group outdoor education about the canal as a green corridor.

Kate Gordon, Director of Ruby’s Yard CIC, said: “We are really delighted to receive this Green Shoots funding. It will help us make this former boatyard into a green and peaceful place which local people can enjoy, provide a new habitat for wildlife, and keep our carbon footprint low. We have 3 events planned for young people to plant hedgerows learn about nature and appreciate our local canal as a “living waterway.”

Further information about Ruby’s Yard CIC can be found on their website.