There are three Local Nature Reserves in Bromley.
Details
Local Nature Reserve (LNR) status gives recognition to a site in terms of its value both for nature conservation and as an area enjoyed by the local community, and conveys a greater degree of protection.
Bromley’s Leisure and Community Services manage three country parks which are also designated as Local Nature Reserves: Jubilee Country Park near Petts Wood, Scadbury Park in Chislehurst and High Elms Country Park south of Farnborough.
Each contains a variety of woodland, grassland and wetland habitats and each has its own special character. Much of Jubilee Park was once a golf course, whilst Scadbury Park is based around a working farm and is the focus of operations for an award winning field studies centre and Bromley’s Environmental Taskforce. High Elms, on the site of the estate once owned by the Lubbock family, also has a nature reserve centre and provides the base for Bromley’s Countryside Ranger Service.
Each of the LNRs has a regularly updated management plan, produced by the Parks and Conservation Section Ecologist. This provides a rationale to the work carried out by the Rangers, Conservation Volunteers and Community Groups and ensures that different habitats, their characteristic species – including those like Stag Beetles, Glow Worms, Butterflies, Great Crested Newts and Skylark for which there are action plans in the Bromley or London Biodiversity Strategies – are taken into account, whilst ensuring that each reserve provides an accessible of green space for the local populace.
In fact, the Bromley Wildspace Officer – supported by a New Opportunities Fund grant from English Nature – is working with different groups in Bromley to promote access to and increase people’s enjoyment of their LNRs.
The Local Nature Reserve (LNR) designation was created under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, which, in addition to creating a series of National Parks, laid down guidelines for the designation of National Nature Reserves (NNRs), Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and Country Parks, in recognition of important landscape character, value to wildlife, geological interest, the public’s enjoyment of the countryside or some combination of these features.
Cost
Admission to Bromley’s nature reserves is free.
Contact
Information about Bromley’s Local Nature Reserves
Telephone: 01689 862815
Fax: 01689 861347
e-mail: countrysideandparks@bromley.gov.uk
Address: Bromley Countryside Ranger Service,
High Elms Country Park LNR, Shire Lane, Farnborough, BR6 7JH.