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About Avon Meadows
Avon Meadows Community Wetlands and Local Nature Reserve is often simply known as Pershore Wetlands.
After the devastating floods in 2007, the community wetland was created to help reduce the impact of any future floods that come from too much surface water.
The project to create the wetlands was developed jointly by Pershore Town Council, Wychavon District Council and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. Out of this partnership project the Friends of Avon Meadows were formed, a local community volunteer group who continue to support the management of Avon Meadows.
How to find Avon Meadows
Nestling on the bank of the River Avon, you can find the nature reserve only a 5 minute walk from the town centre, with one of the easiest access points being from King George's Field, just behind the Football Club.
Parking is often only available during spring and summer, because the car park forms part of the flooding scheme for Pershore, and is often under water in winter.
Criss-crossed by footpaths and boardwalks, Avon Meadows is a wonderful place to get away from it all, relax and reconnect with nature, without having to travel far from home.
What can you see?
The site has a mosaic of habitats – from hay meadows and willow copse to reed beds, open water and riverbanks, attracting a wide range of birds, bats, insects and mammals. You can walk all round the site and much of it is suitable for those with mobility problems.
If you’re lucky you might see kingfishers from the riverbank or Herons fishing. Listen out for the calls of the birds which nest here, from the noisy coots to the tiny warblers or visit the bird hide near to the reed beds, which provides an ideal spot for bird watching.
The reed beds aren't just great for wildlife, they perform an important function for the town too. The wetlands are fed by a pipe that takes surface water run off from nearby housing which, rather than racing straight into the river, flows slowly through the reedbeds and pools, filtering, cleaning and soaking up the water before it reaches the river.
The grassy fields are part of the natural floodplain of the river and often flood. In other places in Worcestershire these meadows are host to a beautiful array of summer flowers. Avon Meadows has lost many of its traditional wet meadow flowers, but with time and care, some are now re-appearing. A hay cut is taken in late summer and the site is then grazed for a few weeks a year, helping to remove coarse grasses and rushes from the fields and, where sheep or cattle trample the ground, providing bare patches for seeds to grow in.
The willows on the banks of the ditches and streams provide perches for the cuckoos which are regular visitors to the reed beds, looking out for reed warblers nests where they can lay their eggs. The tiny reed warblers then raise the large cuckoo chick instead of their own. Visit in early summer to hear their distinctive calls.
Who looks after the meadows?
Looking after the meadows is a real team effort. The work is guided by a management plan, telling us what to do and when, and that work is carried out by contractors and by volunteers from the Friends of Avon Meadows. Work parties are held throughout the year and new members are always welcome. Many hands make light work!
The volunteers also play an important role in surveying and collecting data about the many species who live here. That means we have excellent records of birds, butterflies, moths, meadow plants and much more.
pdf View the Avon Meadows Management Plan (19.29 MB)
Our welcome
Our vision is for as many people as possible to learn, explore and enjoy this amazing space .Whether you’re a nature enthusiast, bird watcher , walker or simply looking for a peaceful escape, we welcome you to this amazing place.
Communities and funding advisory panel
In this section
Our Communities and Funding Advisory Panel provides our Executive Board with advice and policy development support on community leadership and engagement, community funding issues and the community rights contained within the Localism Act 2011.
View details about the Executive Board
Read Localism Act 2011 on the Parliament website
The panel's responsibilities include:
- Advising on community leadership and engagement.
- Considering requests to allocate Section106 contributions and making recommendations to the Board.
- Considering New Homes Bonus applications and assessing Community Legacy Grant applications from town and parish councils and making recommendations to the Board in accordance with our New Homes Bonus protocols.
- Advising and make recommendations on any approaches in relation to the Community Right to Challenge and Community Right to Bid as necessary, including nominations for assets of community value.
- Overseeing our Meet your council ward visits programme. View advisory panel information.
- Considering Funding applications and making recommendations to the Board.
- Developing stronger working relationships across all three local government tiers.
- Organising and sponsoring events including our Wychavon Partners together events and parish council events.
Meetings of the panel are open to the public. View meeting meeting dates, agendas and minutes.
For more information contact:
Tracy Perkins
Call: 01386 565517
Email:
Intelligently Green Plan
In this section
Be in it to win it with WYCHRewards!
You could win prizes just for taking simple, everyday actions to reduce your carbon footprint and live more sustainably. Find out more about how you could win with WYCHRewards.
Wychavon District Council has shown strong leadership on carbon reduction and environmental stewardship for two decades. We first signed up to the Worcestershire Climate Change Pledge in 2005, agreed a climate change action plan in 2008 and adopted our first Wychavon Intelligently Green Plan in 2012.
The current Intelligently Green Plan was adopted in April 2026 and covers the period from 2025 to 2030. This latest version was developed as part of a 5 year review of the previous plan that was created in 2020. This review consisted of a substantial amount of work to review the plan, making sure that the vision, priorities and actions were relevant, deliverable and focused on those areas making the biggest impact up until the end of this decade.
The overall vision of the plan has four strands. These are:
- To lead the Wychavon district to be net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible and by 2050 at the latest
- To make the most of the opportunities that tackling climate change presents to further strengthen and grow our local economy
- To increase and improve a range of habitats across the district to support carbon capture and biodiversity.
- Adapt to climate change to ensure the council and our communities are resilient to its future impacts.
The plan has four priority areas, which represent the critical areas where we need to see decarbonisation progress in next 5 years in order to achieve our 2030 and 2050 targets.
These are:
- Energy
- Low Carbon Travel
- Natural Environment
- Policy & Resources
pdf Download the Wychavon Intelligently Green Plan 2020 - 2030 (770 KB)
Intelligently Green Annual Update
The Intelligently Green Plan commits to an annual progress review to provide an update against each of the five stated success measures, as well as the latest update on key projects that have been progressed during the year.
The latest report for 2024/25 provides detailed information about the performance against each of the success measures: Read the Intelligently Green Annual Update 2024 to 2025 webpage.
pdf Download the Intelligently Green Annual Update 2024 to 2025 (394 KB) to view the report with the data and its sources.
Other useful documents
Read the sustainable procurement policy (51 KB)
For more information please contact
Matt Barker
Carbon Reduction Project Officer
Malvern and Wychavon District Councils
Email:
Tel: 01684 862198
Wychavon insight
In this section
Wychavon Insight Page
Discover our latest insights into Wychavon District Council by viewing our Power BI interactive reports or view the relevant websites.
Data gathered from a wide range of sources has enabled us to provide intelligence about the Wychavon district and its residents. This helps us to provide the right services that support strategic priority setting, decision making and planning of services to meet customers' needs.
Find information about the population of the district and community assets using power BI
Data and intelligence
Data and intelligence, and health and wellbeing insights relevant to Wychavon, may be found here on this open Worcestershire website, allowing you to easily access local data relevant to you.
Policing and Crime
To find information if you have been a victim of crime and on crime prevention, to find your local police team, view area crime data/maps, and access online reporting services for crimes and incidents at postcode level, visit:
Deprivation
In October 2025, the government released its report on deprivation in England. Deprivation refers to people’s unmet needs, a lack of access to opportunities and resources which we might expect in our society.
The Indices of Deprivation (IoD) covers a set of relative measures of deprivation for small areas, known as Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) across England, based on seven different domains of deprivation:
- Income Deprivation
- Employment Deprivation
- Education, Skills and Training Deprivation
- Health and Disability Deprivation
- Crime Deprivation
- Barriers to Housing and Services Deprivation
- Living Environment Deprivation
For a greater insight into the Indices of Deprivation and to explore your area against these measures, follow the link:
2021 Census
A nationwide census is completed, by the Office for National Statistics, every 10 years. It counts all people and households throughout the country. The latest census took place on Sunday 21 March 2021. You can find out more on the government's census website.
Understanding the needs of the nation helps everyone, from central government to us at Wychavon District Council, to plan and fund public services. Census outputs inform where funding is spent on services like transport, education and health – on cycle routes, schools and dental surgeries.
More information on the 2021 Census can be found on the Nomis website: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics
For more information contact:
Adrian Pass
Research, Data and Projects Officer
Tel: 01386 565646