During April a Coventry Society group were lucky enough to be given a tour of the new linear park from Naul’s Mill Park to Abbotts Lane and onto Belgrade Plaza. The scheme is to re-wild the existing boating pond at Naul’s Mill and open up the Radford Brook culvert in Abbott’s Lane as well as creating a new park with thousands of trees and plants.
The project has been developed by Complex Development Projects (CDP) and the landscaping work is being completed by idverde UK who are based in Coventry.
We began at Naul’s Mill hearing about the repair work needed and the deepening of the pond to stop pond weed from accumulating. The pond will have a lot of planting to encourage wildlife and will certainly change the current harsh edges to be softer with reeds and aquatic plants.
From there we walked down through a new section of pathway alongside the current Britannia Tyres workshop. This will give a direct route from the park to Abbotts Lane and ultimately Belgrade Plaza. Trees are being planted along with lights on this section before reaching the new park at the former National Grid site. We were staggered to see the amount of tree planting, some of great age, as we wandered through the site. Some could have been 30 years old or more and each tree or shrub had a specific place to be. The planting was well underway during our visit with the shrubs due to arrive shortly. We could see the outline of where the culvert would be unveiled, and a couple of new bridges are also part of the plan to make the area a pleasing place to be. One such bridge will be more of a design feature known as the Zen Arch as pictured here.
Once we made it under the ring road further artistic endeavours were due to be completed including a climbing wall, new lighting and performance space. There is a lot coming to the area and we cannot wait to see it unfold. It is the first “break through” of the ring since it was created and should open up the safe passage for pedestrians through a currently dark underpass. The space under the ring road was recently vacated by Coventry Council City Services for the creation of the park under the ring road which will ultimately lead through to Belgrade Square. This route will be well lit and hopefully maintained for years to come with various security enhancements which will be a big upgrade on the current setting.
The site is next to a proposed development – also by CDP – for housing, but the work for the park has been unaffected by this and should be ready towards the end of the year (October) for the public to enjoy.
More info is available on the Complex Developments Project website and the Iverde website.
Aaron Law, CovSoc Committee Member