National award win for Telford Town Park bee project

Telford Town Park has won the Year of Green Action Bees’ Needs Champion Award amongst 33 other successful applicants. Awarded from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs for its successful implementation of the park’s very own bee hive.

The Telford Town Park Bee Project began several years ago, over this time the team have worked to develop stocks of early flowering shrubs, perennials and bulbs alongside other seasonal planting.

After a number of years of bee friendly management across the park, in 2018 the team began to work alongside Alison Wakeman, from Alison’s Bee Class, to educate staff, volunteers and visitors about the importance of bees.

The main aim of the Telford Town Park Bee Project is to increase understanding of the importance of pollinators at the park and within the wider environment; this has included Alison Wakeman offering ‘Bee Keeping Classes for Beginners’ each winter at the visitor centre. Part of the project involves establishing hives within the community garden in the park.

In time the team, working with Alison aim to establish a Telford Bee Keeping group and ultimately an onsite training apiary with the hope of also producing Telford Town Park’s very own honey!

The Telford Town Park Bee Project contributes towards the park’s wider sustainable objectives. The first installation of the bee hive in spring 2019 was just the beginning to a year of improvements. 2019 has also seen Telford Town Park invest in an electric park gator, and electric gardening tools instead of the traditional petrol and diesel options.

Cllr Carolyn Healy, Cabinet Member for Visitor Economy said “What a wonderful achievement for Telford Town Park and the team. We are committed to enhancing biodiversity in our green spaces throughout the borough, and continue to develop even more of these initiatives.”

“A big thank you to the team at Telford Town Park, Alison and the Friends of Telford Town Park who help to look after the bees.”