East Riding of Yorkshire Council has changed the planting proposals for two major highway improvement schemes currently in progress, to encourage and support bees, following a request from three local schoolchildren.
Daisy, Jemima and Orlaith are all pupils at St Mary’s School in Beverley and contacted the leader of the council, Councillor Richard Burton, to ask if bees could be supported when major infrastructure schemes are completed.
Councillor Burton has replied to the young people, who call themselves Buzz for Bees, to assure them that the council will now be considering bee-friendly planting as part of all of its future schemes.
The council’s designers of the new A164 Riplingham Road roundabouts have worked with the council’s biodiversity officer and have been able to revise the planting designs to help encourage and support bees and other insects.
At this location, the council is planting trees, including Birch trees and Oak trees which will help encourage bees. It is also planting shrubs and hedges and has included Purging Blackthorn, which will grow well on the chalky soil in this area and is good for bees.
On the A1079 where it meets the A614 at Shiptonthorpe, where a new roundabout is under construction, the soil is very heavy soil, so the council has decided to plant some Alder Buckthorn, along with Hawthorn and Blackthorn to create the hedges. Alder Buckthorn is a type of shrub that makes a very good hedge and is good food for bees and the Brimstone butterfly and helps support other wildlife.
Councillor Burton said;
“We are very conscious of how we affect the environment whenever we do any construction work in the East Riding.
“When we are planning construction work we do try to have as little impact as possible on the surrounding area and make sure that we support and enhance the natural environment. Sometimes this is a balancing act, as we have to look at the cost of the project, and the safety of everyone, as well as the future care of the area and what this might cost in the years ahead.
“It is important that we identify suitable types of plants and we are looking at a mix of planting in the hedgerows that will include bee-friendly plants.”
