17-07-2025
Island 'wildlife haven' in St John's spruced up by volunteers
Work to restore a community "wildlife haven" has been undertaken by a group of Yn Ellan Ain, in St John's, was created in 2018 to celebrate the island's Unesco Biosphere beauty spot, which was installed as a 12-month temporary feature and was due to be dismantled in early 2019, was kept due to its widespread popularity and work to maintain and reinvigorate it has taken place in the last Prescott who designed the space said: "I think when you have a vibrant public space, it creates community as well."
The garden has a circular feature in the middle, which Ms Prescott said took inspiration from Tynwald Hill and comprises eight flower beds, representing the island's coastal and land habitats, with a Three Legs of Man sculpture serving as the focal government-owned plot, which had formerly been the site of a pub, has since been maintained by the prison and probation services, who have also been involved in restoration by members of the community who noticed that the space was looking neglected, work began to raise funds to spruce up the garden.
Community volunteers secured funding from various local organisations to restore the flower beds, replace signage and animal silhouettes representing the various species across the Prescott said: "I love seeing people be there and enjoy it."I think this is what our landscape should be, drawing communities together and having lots of different ways that people enjoy and use spaces."Volunteer Helen Robinson said it had been a "lovely community space" when it was first installed and it seemed "a shame that it had gone down hill in the way that it had"."It's wildlife haven and somewhere people can visit on what would otherwise be a derelict piece of land," she said."I think it is important to maintain those kinds of spaces."
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