MALVERN Hills Trust has been busy restoring ponds along Guarlford Road on the edge of the town this week.

The ponds offer habitats to species such as smooth newts and emperor dragonflies. Many are also part of the area's local history, having been made to extract clay or gravels, or to provide a water supply for livestock.

A Trust spokesman said: "As time goes by, ponds naturally fill in and without intervention would disappear. We do the work during the winter when the ponds are quiet and much of the wildlife is out of the pond.

"We're extremely grateful to the shoppers and the Community Matters scheme at Waitrose, Great Malvern, who provided £274 of donations towards the pond restoration work. This generous funding has allowed us to restore these ponds for wildlife to thrive in and for people to enjoy.

"We care for more than 30 ponds of many different sizes across our land, with many to be found on Castlemorton Common and around Malvern town. We’ll be working to restore more ponds in the next few years."