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

The appeal aims to ensure the meadow will be used for public recreation like the adjacent Hurst Water Meadows, and will also provide a 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 to buy the land.

The Hurst Water Meadow trustees said the site could be part of a footpath linking the village, the water meadow, the Thame towpath and Wittenham Clumps. Access would be improved to allow wheelchairs and buggies to use the area.

A spokesman said: "Hay meadows and wildlife-rich grasslands have shrunk to only three per cent of the World War II level.

"It is essential that we restore these meadows to provide nectar for pollinating insects throughout the season and that isolated pockets of grassland are linked by wildlife corridors. In partnership with the Northmoor Trust, it could contribute to a wildlife corridor which they plan to co-ordinate as part of a larger project.

"There could also be a pond to encourage frogs and invertebrates such as newts."

Wildlife corridors are habitat links between different areas otherwise too dangerous or too far for wildlife to bridge.

The trustees are asking the public to help raise the money and are also applying for grants.