Alma Park - Grantham

Long term intentions

Continue to manage the site as predominantly open ground to preserve the grassland habitat and provide an area of open space for public access. The continuation of grazing on site is beset with practical difficulties. The main constraint on grassland management is the lack of a realistic access route for stock to be brought to site, offloaded, and managed through the summer grazing season or cutting machinery to be brought on site. The lack of availability of continued grazing without any realistic alternatives means that the area will inevitably change over time. In fact the scrub area has been growing annually in spite of the grazing regime specified by the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. The possibility of replacing grazing with a limited cutting regime will be considered.

The options are to leave natural processes to dictate the rate of change or intercede with some degree of grass cutting and scrub cutting in future years: which is likely to be expensive. During the plan period, the ground flora will be surveyed and assessed to check for any important characteristics in the open areas and give a baseline for future management of the grass and scrub areas, and alternative cutting regimes will be looked into. It is recognised that if realistic grazing options, or alternatives, cannot be found then the area will revert to scrub and open woodland over a long timescale. In the absence of active grazing or cutting possibilities, a policy of minimal intervention will be followed to let nature take its course and allow the development of a dynamic and changing natural habitat, encompassing grassland, open woodland and scrub.

Maintain open public access.