A GREEN space in Downend could become home to a new nature reserve.
Hill House Park is currently mainly used by dog walkers and as an informal space for young people to socialise.
But it could become home to a new wood, hedgerow, pond and picnic area as part of plans for an accessible nature reserve.
A meeting to set up a volunteer friends group, to help push the scheme forward and look after the park, is now being planned.
The park is at the Downend end of Hill House Road, on the former playing fields of Page School for Girls, which was later part of Downend School.
When the school buildings in North View were demolished and redeveloped in 2008, the field was retained as green space.
The field is within the boundaries of Downend & Bromley Heath parish council but is part of the Staple Hill & Mangotsfield ward.
Councillor Katie Cooper has been liaising with South Gloucestershire Council, which owns the land, and the parish council over the plans.
She has set up a meeting for people who want to help set up a friends group and get involved in the park’s future at Staple Hill Community Hub in Berkeley Road, on October 21 at 7pm.
Cllr Cooper said a decision from South Gloucestershire Council, to rule out permanently the prospect of development and allow the nature reserve plan to go ahead, is expected to be taken within weeks.
She said some funding for the project was expected to be available from Community Infrastructure Levy payments made by developers locally.
Cllr Cooper said: “It’s an underused field at the moment.
“The main focus is to increase biodiversity and help create a green corridor for wildlife.
“It’s very important to the dog walking community, so it’s important that we still make it dog-friendly.”
There was previously a friends group and the meeting will be held to re-establish it, including a leadership team, before the first tree planting opportunities later in the year.