A SCHEME to help boost numbers of white storks in the UK has been given permission in Dorset – but needs funding to get off the ground.

Planning permission has been granted for four ‘stork towers’ on land at Bere Marsh Farm, near Blandford, in a bid to help the species – which has recently begun to breed in the UK again after an absence of some 600 years.

Now, the Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT) is seeking sponsorship to help finance the Dorset project.

The towers cost £1,500 each and are part of the CRT’s plans to create a showcase regenerative farm and education centre at the 92-acre farm.

The CRT said the towers – made up of a telegraph pole with a galvanised steel basket – will be erected on floodplain fields adjacent to the River Stour, an ideal site for white stork to settle.

And the group said any local business willing to sponsor a £1,500 tower will receive its name and logo on the tower and will be included in any ongoing publicity as the project develops.

“This is very much a Field of Dreams project where, like in the film, we have faith that if we build the ‘ballpark’ they will come,” said Hayley Neal, the CRT’s head of development.

“The White stork is such an emblematic species that to have them nesting in Dorset really would be incredible.

“We are looking for sponsors who want to share this dream and help us create the right environment for the white storks to arrive.”

Businesses who would like to sponsor a tower can find out more about the project at www.thecrt.co.uk.