A CAMPAIGN to revitalise a wetland area near Warminster received a boost this week with a £500 grant from Wessex Water.

Residents in the village of Sherrington want to regenerate its sterile cressbeds and hope to attract species of water vole, brown trout, bullhead, white-clawed crayfish and kingfisher to the area.

The Sherrington biodiversity project was launched in August 2002 and will cost more than £22,000 to complete. But 80 per cent of the cash has been secured after the group won a Government grant.

On Wednesday Wessex Water presented campaigners with the £500 grant in the form of a Watermark award.

The work is likely to include removing 90 per cent of the silt from the watercress beds, varying the water depth, the construction of an additional island and the replacement of the exit weir. Marginal habitats will be developed and a mowing regime introduced to reduce the effect of the rank growth of nettles.

Peter Carpenter, of Five Rivers Environmental Contracting, who has devised a management plan for the project, said: "The aim of the management plan is to enhance the value of the watercress beds for both wildlife and village amenity."