THE largest nature reserve in Derbyshire outside the Peak District National Park looks set to be created on part of the old American Adventure site. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has been given a grant of £606,000 – the biggest it has ever received – to buy more than 148 acres of land near Shipley from Derbyshire County Council.
It plans to transform a former opencast mining site, which later became the American Adventure theme park, into a wildlife haven, which would attract thousands of visitors every year.
Trust chief executive Ed Green said he hoped final contracts would be signed in the summer, with the reserve opening in two years' time.
"It is a very big project and is incredibly exciting in terms of its potential and the opportunities it creates for us as a wildlife charity to engage people with wildlife," he said.
The money is being used to buy land that borders the trust's existing Mapperley Wood Nature Reserve, with the county council donating a further 35 acres of the former theme park site to the charity.
The £606,000 cash injection has enabled Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to start the process of buying the "outer ring" of the Shipley site, which has been empty since the theme park closed in 2007.
Its plan is to turn it into the biggest nature reserve in the county outside the Peak District National Park.
The ambitious project was confirmed when the Trust announced it had secured a grant from the 6Cs Strategic Green Infrastructure Growth Fund.
The money will be used to buy just over 148 acres of the former theme park site from Derbyshire County Council, with the authority also agreeing to donate an extra 35 adjoining acres to the charity.
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