Ellesmere Port Habitat Bank

County: Cheshire
Local planning authority (LPA): Cheshire West and Chester Council
National Character Area (NCA): Mersey Valley
Biodiversity gain sites register number: BGS-260226001

Birds-eye render of Ellesmere Port Habitat Bank before restoration

Very high distinctiveness habitats

Lowland meadows

High distinctiveness habitats

Floodplain wetland mosaic and CFGM
Ponds (priority habitat)
Traditional orchards

Medium distinctiveness habitats

Mixed scrub
Other neutral grassland
Other woodland; broadleaved
Willow scrub

Buy Biodiversity Units

Ready to purchase now, subject to availability.

Habitat Bank overview

Less than thirty miles from Liverpool, our Ellesmere Port Habitat Bank covers almost fifty acres where our work is helping to connect habitats across the landscape between Bridge Trafford and Mickle Trafford.

In collaboration with the landowner, we’ll be restoring the landscape and using sustainable livestock grazing to help local ecosystems thrive.

BNG delivery

At every Habitat Bank, we always look at the land to determine what can be achieved from the very start. Our biodiversity experts assess the soil, wildlife, vegetation, geology, hydrology, management history, and connectivity across the local landscape.

We take a baseline for each Habitat Bank using the statutory biodiversity metric. We carefully select the best possible habitats for us to establish so we can deliver and demonstrate measurable biodiversity gains over time.

Neighbouring LPAs
Warrington Borough Council
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
Liverpool City Council
Shropshire Council
Halton Borough Council
Cheshire East Council

Neighbouring NCAs
Wirral
Shropshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain
Lancashire Coal Measures
Manchester Conurbation
Merseyside Conurbation
Cheshire Sandstone Ridge

Our vision

At our Ellesmere Port Habitat Bank, we’re transforming the previous pasture and arable fields into a rich mix of habitats including native mixed scrub, wildflower grassland, and ponds.

Each habitat aims to encourage important flora and fauna to flourish – from the native woodlands designed to support bats, newts, and badgers, to the fruit tree orchards that we hope will attract pollinating insects, to the ponds that will become home to a variety of aquatic vegetation and amphibians.

Our ecologists plan for this site’s floodplain marshland is to support bird species of special conservation status as the local area is noted for breeding and wintering birds.

We are also enhancing the grassland to become far more species-rich while extending the existing woodland to become a suitable haven for a diverse range of wildlife. We are especially keen to attract protected bird and invertebrate species through our site’s new habitats.