Thames Life, Barking and Dagenham Council, the Young Action Group from Riverside School, Roding Rubbish and a group of volunteers have been working behind the scenes to open the Ripple Nature Reserve to the general public.
The Ripple Nature Reserve is a 10-hectare nature reserve site with two main entrances on Renwick Road and Marine Drive. It boasts a variety of important species including weasels, bats, woodpeckers, silver-trunk birch trees, ponds and a wildflower meadow blooming with colourful flowers in the Summer.
UK Power Networks have been completing some re-cabling works on behalf of National Grid which houses a local power station on the reserve. In the meantime, the British Red Cross, and Novel Eco from the University of Dublin and the Young Action Group have been conducting organised walks with residents and young people.
Residents are waiting for LBBD and Barking Riverside Limited to complete a call for a landscape architect to get some new plans together for the re-design of the RNR.