Mobilane’s Living Hoardings have been installed at Ponders End in Enfield as regeneration work takes place following the riots of August 2011

31 May 2013

This is the first time that the company’s pre-grown ivy Living Hoardings have been supplied as part of a leased arrangement. The council has leased the Living Hoardings for three years, from Mobilane installers Treebox, to help create an aesthetically pleasing, yet secure solution for enclosing the site, whilst demolition and building work is completed.
Having been heavily hit by the 2011 summer riots, Enfield Borough Council is in the process of working on a regeneration scheme for the High Street, due to be completed in 2016. Whilst this work takes place they are keen to enhance the local area and by installing the Living Hoardings hope to bring more to the area than simply hiding the building work behind them.

Planting the 70sq m hoarding has the same impact on reducing pollutants as 3 full-sized city trees but takes up a fraction of the space. They are made of ivy, delivered in bio-degradable troughs which are then fitted to the base of the hoarding panels with roots positioned behind the panel to protect them. The watering system is automatically controlled through a dripper system through which fertilizer is also added when needed. There is no need for a power supply as it is all self-contained. Living Hoardings are maintained by a Mobilane-approved installer who ensures that the Living Hoarding is in prime condition upon dismantling so that it can be redeployed in a new location, thus avoiding the need to send them to landfill.

As well as providing a more attractive environment than plain hoardings, Living Hoardings are an excellent graffiti preventative while also providing some space for signage and lockable gates to keep the site secure. The ivy that covers the Living Hoardings helps to improve the surrounding air quality by absorbing the PM10 pollutants that are generated by the busy London traffic. The Living Hoardings also help to increase biodiversity in the local area through encouraging flying insects and potentially even birds.

Sean Farrell, director of Mobilane, said: “Many aspects of this excellent scheme by Treebox chime with Mobilane’s own goals – improving the aesthetics of our big towns and cities, and delivering environmental benefits. Our robust Living Hoardings can solve a variety of social and environmental issues in urban settings and it’s great to see them being put to such a creative use. It makes perfect sense that they aren’t disposed to landfill but are instead reused while they are still in such good health.”