Case Study Westminster City Council LivingPillar™

Westminster City Council LivingPillar™ initiative.

Completed October 2022

The Brief

To install 16 trial LivingPillars™ on existing lamp posts in 5 separate locations in Westminster as part of a greening initiative with WSP in the UK to encourage biodiversity.

• Buckingham Palace Road SW1W
• Elizabeth Street SW1W
• Market Place W1W
• Berners Street W1T
• Great Titchfield Street W1W

The Challenge

To assess the suitability of the locations that had been chosen from an access and egress perspective with a view to installation and ongoing maintenance and plant health.

To assess the lighting columns that were chosen from a structural perspective and to liaise with the lighting engineers, FM Conway to install 12v transformers within the column to provide back-up power should there not be adequate solar energy at key times of the day due to shady locations

To ensure Wi-Fi connection to all columns to provide live feed to our maintenance operations.

To install bird and insect boxes on all planting.

The Approach (Design & logistics)

A walking site survey was carried out on all the locations. Where necessary, traffic management solutions were agreed and implemented. All locations proved feasible. 

Working with roch ndt services a structural test (NDT) was carried out on all sixteen lighting columns. The wind load information of our Living Pillars™ installation was factored into the readings and 3.0m high planting was specified on 10no lighting columns and 2.0m high planting on the remaining 6.

In conjunction with the lighting engineers, 12v transformers were installed in the lighting columns with a feed for our use as a back-up supply.

Shrub and perennial planting was chosen to suit the different locations and the LivingPillars™.

A SIM card was installed in all LivingPillars™ to provide a live data feed to manage the irrigation and our standard operational maintenance procedures.

The Result/ Outcome

Working from a mobile tower we installed 16 LivingPillars™ in August and September 2022. 

Due to the windy nature of the locations, the expected growth was slower than expected but by June 2023, we had full coverage. Some perennial plant adjustments were made to suit the conditions.

We used our standard planting mix of 50% perennial and 50% shrub planting. The perennials provide year-round food for our pollinators and the shrubs offer structure and cover for nesting.

The irrigation is recirculating, so no water is wasted, and smart technology adjusts the irrigation cycles to suit the weather conditions.

Our maintenance teams visit weekly in the Summer and every 2-3 weeks in the Winter months to fill the reservoirs.

Horticultural visits are carried out in the Spring and Summer to maintain the plants.

The Future Plan

To continue the trial with a view to scaling the initiative throughout the UK. We have a European patent pending.

To encourage local authorities, asset holders and private landlords to introduce more LivingPillars™ to our cities so that we can start to form biodiversity ‘corridors’ to join up our green spaces.

We have carried out research on the benefits to biodiversity and the reduction of pollution of our LivingPillars™.

2022 University of East London biodiversity net gain (BNG) of LivingPillars™

2019 Greenwich University – Plants ability to absorb Pollution