Creating wildflower areas continues to grow places

Around 60 parish councils now signed up to scheme

Showing wildflowers in Thurlaston

An ambitious plan to transform roadside verges into wildflower areas across the county is continuing to gather pace.

Around 60 parish councils have now signed up to the county council- run-scheme, which involves volunteers giving up their time to restore the verges, including the sowing of native wildflower seeds and learning about the local wildlife within these important habitats.

The initiative, a partnership with local wildlife charity NatureSpot, aims to improve biodiversity and encourage wildlife  with verges being allowed to flourish between April and August, as wildflowers and grasses reach maturity, providing local species with food and habitat.

The initiative forms part of the council’s wider work to tackle climate change, including fresh proposals to make Leicestershire a net zero carbon county by 2045.

 

“We hope to create biodiverse habitats through this Initiative allowing wildlife to flourish. The responses from parishes have been really encouraging and we’d love to see more of them get involved. Conserving our natural environment is a really important part of the council’s work as we play our part in tackling climate change and encouraging others to join us

 
Councillor Ozzy O'Shea, cabinet member for highways and transport,
 

 

 

The county now has its highest number of designated wildflower verges:

  • Over 70 verges across all parishes
  • Approximately 37 thousand square metres of grass verge has been marked by the council to be managed differently by volunteers – that's an area comparable to the size of Enderby
  •  Last year, NatureSpot recorded over 519 species across 11 new verges around the county. With the recorded species belonging to different wildlife groups including wildflowers, grasses, and insects. interested in joining the scheme can contact the council’s environment team at: environmentteam@leics.gov.uk.

The annual programme of grass cutting has started across Leicestershire and residents can check when their grass will be cut on the county council’s on the website.

 

 

Leicestershire Matters

Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire Mike Kapur OBE presented the MBE, BEM and Coronation Champions awards at two ceremonies

Chart topping stats show county is quitting the habit

Beacon Voices, whose members are all young people in care, will also be making a guest appearance at the final in-person fostering event of the year

Anyone in the county with a suitable piece of land to plant can apply for the free trees

The funding will be used to buy and install 364 swift nesting boxes

Our full county council meets today - watch online from 2pm