Stourton Park
Stourton P&R is the UK’s first fully solar powered Park and Ride creating a green corridor along the A61 highway, with widespread woodland reinstatement.
The large-scale landscaping scheme included the planting over 24,000No. woodland and ornamental trees, shrubs and hedges, over 100,000 m2 of ground preparation and wildflower seeding, installation of a green roof at the terminus building and one year’s maintenance.
Stourton P&R is the UK’s first fully solar powered Park and Ride and was delivered as part of the £218 million Leeds Public Transport Investment Programme (LPTIP).
The Site covers an area of 13.96 hectares, the car parking and associated hardstanding infrastructure forms 4.5 hectares of this, with the remaining land areas dedicated to landscaping and access foot/cycle paths. A 54:1 tree replacement strategy was implemented, creating a green corridor along the A61 highway, with widespread woodland reinstatement. Over 11,000 trees and 9,000 shrubs were planted.
The Landscape Strategy was prepared with ecological input and had the overriding objective of creating a safe and strong landscape setting for the Park and Ride, conserving and enhancing existing planting wherever practicable; creating new landscape structures including woodland creation of habitats, enhancing biodiversity and local amenity; and mitigating the visual and noise impact of the new development to the surrounding area.
New woodland edges to the perimeter of the site were planted in order to create an effective boundary treatment which screens residential properties to the north and south of the Site, whilst reducing potential light impact to Hunslet Cemetery, a Registered Park and Garden to the west.
We adapted the landscaping scheme in numerous ways to help our clients meet their budget and sustainability goals. We developed a plant schedule to include smaller, native, UK grown species which were sourced from local ISO14001 accredited suppliers. The smaller specification had no effect on the overall impact and will still achieve the same canopy but significantly contributed to reducing the carbon footprint of the scheme. A combination of hydroseeding and conventional seeding was used to apply the wildflower meadow mix to the woodland areas. Wildflower meadow mix was used to enhance and create biodiversity, providing a high rate of CO2 exchange, with it also requiring lower maintenance it hugely benefited the carbon ambitions of the project. A green roof was also planted at the terminus building which will help reduce urban air temperatures and will create a habitat for wildlife.