The Round Hill Society

Round Hill Nature Project

gains strong support in city fund.

By Dominic Furlong

From The Round Hill Reporter Spring 2026

The Round Hill Society’s community-led proposal, improving green infrastructure in the Round Hill conservation area has attracted strong early support in the council’s Better Brighton & Hove Fund competition. It received the fourth highest number of positive public comments among the ideas submitted on the council’s Your Voice platform.

This highlights the strong level of support for the project, which in turn informs funding decisions at the ward level. Final voting for vetted proposals is expected to open on the Your Voice platform in mid-February.

The project would deliver significant environmental improvements in one of Brighton's densely built neighbourhoods. Plans include planting six new trees Richmond Road, which lies within a designated Nature Improvement Area, and replacing a lost tree in the Pocket Park. It also includes installing bird and bat boxes and distributing native wildflowers to residents to support pollinators and urban wildlife.

These improvements would help strengthen a recognised wildlife corridor identified in city policy as important for habitat recovery and ecological connectivity.

Round Hill has almost no public green space, making street trees and small- scale habitat measures especially valuable. Scientific records confirm the presence of protected bat species and more than 180 bird species in the surrounding area, underlining the importance of protecting and enhancing local habitats.

The proposal builds on the Round Hill Society’s long track record of environmental projects. The project has now passed the initial stage and will move to a public vote. Because decisions are made at ward level, local participation in the Your Voice vote will play a key role in determining whether the project gets funded by the council.