Green volunteers transform popular beauty spot

Queen's Park’s Serpentine Lake is on its way to being restored to its former glory after the green volunteers teamed up with rangers to transform the site.

The volunteers spent weeks braving the dirt to clear the lake of years of accumulated mud and rotting leaves to prevent it from silting up in the future.

The materials they removed have now been turned into an island in the middle of the lake. This will be planted up in spring, turning it into a magnet for wildlife, including butterflies, dragonflies and frogs.

The Serpentine Lake is an original feature of the park, which was opened in 1879 and was named the nation’s favourite in a national poll in 2010.

The Serpentine is named after its much larger counterpart in London’s Hyde Park and along with the park’s boating lake, forms part of a protected Site of Biological Importance (SBI) due to its diverse wildlife.