A £20,000 appeal has been launched to buy three-and-a-half acres of flood meadow alongside the River Thame at Dorchester.

The meadow will be used for public recreation, in a similar way to the adjacent Hurst Water Meadows. It will also provide a much-needed wildlife corridor in conjunction with the Northmoor Trust at Little Wittenham.

The Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment has put in £20,000 and a local resident has given £7,000, leaving a shortfall of just under £20,000.

The Hurst Water Meadow trustees said the site would be part of a popular footpath which would link the village, the water meadow, the Thames towpath and Wittenham Clumps.

Access would be improved to allow wheelchairs and buggies to use the area. A spokesman said: "It is essential that we restore these meadows to provide nectar for pollinating insects throughout the season."

Wildlife corridors are habitat links between different areas which would otherwise be too dangerous for wildlife to bridge.