Massive industrial complex being transformed in wildlife haven which people can visit

More than a third of a million pounds has been earmarked for an “ecology zone” on Europe’s second biggest industrial park. It’s part of wider plans to transform Wrexham Industrial Estate into a huge wildlife haven.

Driving the initiative is a new ecology co-operative that will be implementing a long-term management plan across six pieces of land totalling 75 acres. As well as trees and watercourses, new wildflower meadows are proposed with a focus on bee conservation.

A key element of the plan is the creation of new ponds to relocate the estate’s population of Great Crested Newts. The estate has scores of ponds and surveys so far have identified at least 49 newts. Of these, 33 were in ponds within the footprint of a giant logistics site currently being constructed.

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This is Wrexham 1M, a collection of three warehouses on a 62-acre site providing 1m sq ft of floor space. The development, by FI Real Estate Management (FIREM), is so vast that’s been called a “game-changer” for the entire region, generating a potential 1,000 jobs.

Dozens of ponds and waterways are dotted across the industrial estate already: within the Wrexham 1M site there are six ponds and four ditches, with a further 47 ponds and nine ditches within 500 metres, all offering habitats for aquatic wildlife.

To mitigate Wrexham 1M’s construction, which has seen the loss of three ponds, an adjacent 30-acre ecology zone is being created. Around £350,000 being invested into the zone, including replacement ponds.

To manage this site, and others around the industrial estate, FIREM has teamed up five wildlife groups to form new ecology co-operative. Working alongside the company will be United Environmental Services (UES), Enfys Ecology, North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT), Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, and Butterfly Conservation. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now

Tim Knowles, FIREM’s founder and managing director, said: “As a business we’ve invested in Wrexham for almost 20 years, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done here to create economic value. However, this co-operative is a landmark part of our journey at Wrexham Industrial Estate, allowing us to transform the area, protect the wildlife, and create purposeful spaces for the nature and the community.”

NWWT has a long-held interest in the industrial estate. As well as working to make it more habitable to wildlife, the trust wants to increase its accessibility for people while improving the wellbeing of employees and nearby communities.

Wildflower strips have been sown, footbridges built and outdoor seating areas created so that industrial estate staff can “get a dose of nature during their day”. A setback came when, in 2019, a wildflower verge was accidentally cut down by council contractors.

As well as its ponds and ditches, Wrexham Industrial Estate has a surprising amount of woodland, reflecting its war-time origins. During the Second World War ordnance factories were built on land that was once medieval hunting parkland. Given the explosive nature of the factories, they were spread out and areas of woodland and wilder areas survived in between.

Among these was Erlas Black Wood, a six-acre site in the heart of the estate that’s home to green woodpeckers, tawny owls, wood anemones, wild garlic and purple orchids. It’s on land owned by the Jones’ Village Bakery, which has created a nature trail with benches for lunch-hour walks.

Also in the wood are trees that look dead. NWWT says this is misleading as they host masses of fungi to beetles. Online, the trust said: “It is often said a tree spends half of its life growing and the other half dying. We need to think of these dying trees as factories for biodiversity, fitting within an industrial estate.”

Adrian Lloyd Jones, NWWT’s head of living landscapes, believes the new Wrexham Ecology Co-operative will help transform the estate’s biodversity. “It’s another important milestone for the Trust in realising our longstanding ambitions for the industrial estate,” he said.

A base survey is being carried out to identify existing biodiversity and what can be achieved. The first phase of work will focus on the ecology zone, to include rehoming the estate’s great crested newts.

The ecology partnership comes as FIREM continues to expand its operations on Wrexham Industrial Estate. Earlier this month the company acquired the former Tetra Pak distribution site from plastics manufacturing giant Mainetti, bring its Wrexham investments to more than £132m since 2006.

As well as Wrexham 1M, another giant storage and distribution warehouse, Wrexham 152, is nearing completion. Drawing parallels with the impact of Wrexham AFC ’s Hollywood owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, FIREM believes that, over the next decade, its developments will generate £1.2bn and create more than 3,000 full-time jobs. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox

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