QUEENSWOOD Country Park is a special place for many people in Herefordshire and has long had a strong connection with residents.

For more than two years the woodland at Dinmore Hill has been managed by a partnership of two county organisations: Herefordshire Wildlife Trust and New Leaf.

After getting to grips with running the park and all the services it has to offer the partnership has many plans for the future of the site with conservation and sustainability at the heart of what they do.

Estates manager James Hitchcock said: “It has been a steep learning curve with regards to all of the services we took on. We had a new venue to deal with and car parking, the cafe and the playground.

“We felt it was a way of promoting what we are doing while keeping this fantastic facility open for Herefordshire.”

The site is basically self-funded and James believes they have got better at putting out their own message.

For example, residents were initially upset at parking fees being introduced, but those fees help keep the site open for the public.

It costs £154,000 a year to run and they receive approximately £100,000 from parking fees.

The site was previously owned by Herefordshire Council so residents, whether they visited or not, were effectively paying for the site through their council tax.

Wendy Cotton, sustainability consultant for New Life, said: “We can access funding the council couldn’t.”

For example The Queenswood Heritage Gateway Project runs until October 2019 and the project received funding amounting to just under £100,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

The project will introduce a new audio-visual trail which will run through the arboretum.

And in the arboretum, a memorial to the First World War will be created. Queenswood was clear-felled during the Great War to provide timber to support the war effort, and the woodland we see today has regenerated over the last century.

The First World War Commemorative Woodland will provide a contemplative space which explores the role played by Herefordshire’s landscapes and rural communities during the war.

The partnership has also made many improvements, including revamping the playground. They introduced the Gruffalo trail in 2016 which has been extremely popular - they have given out 7,500 trail packs.

They are currently gearing up for their busiest week of the year - October half term.