An eco-friendly housebuilder has signed up for a second year as a paid-up supporter of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Vistry Group’s Mercia region, based in Stafford, will continue its role as a business member of the national charity after linking up with it in 2022.
The housebuilder, which develops new abodes under its Bovis Homes and Linden Homes brands across Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire, launched a scheme to help create havens for bees in the gardens of new-build homes last summer.
Under the Building Homes for Bees project, Vistry Mercia provides all new homebuyers with a bumblebee guide and packet of wildflower seeds as part of their welcome pack. This enables homeowners to make their gardens more bee-friendly by growing more wildflowers.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is dedicated to trying to increase the number and distribution of bumblebees throughout the country.
The charity’s main objectives are to improve the understanding of bumblebee ecology and conservation, increase the quality and quantity of suitable habitats and to inspire more people to take action to support the insects.
Jo Cole (pictured left), senior partnerships officer at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, said: “It is great to have Vistry Mercia support the Trust as a business member and provide new residents with simple means to make their new gardens enticing for bumblebees.
“Bumblebees are familiar and much-loved insects that pollinate our crops and wildflowers. We’re looking forward to seeing how Vistry Mercia can incorporate bumblebee-friendly planting, landscaping and grounds maintenance into their sites.”
As part of the housebuilder’s working association with the charity, Jo gave a talk at Bovis Homes’ Bollin Grange location in Macclesfield in September, about how growing flowers in gardens can help bees survive and thrive, as well as the importance of stopping pesticide use.
Freya Halsall (pictured right), marketing manager at Vistry Mercia, said: “Our Building Homes for Bees initiative is further commitment to our desire to work with the Trust to take measures that help the bumblebee. The fact that we give information about bumblebees and wildflower seeds to our customers so that they can grow flowers to attract them has been very popular, especially with families, and helps create a better habitat for bees at our developments.
“We are an environmentally conscious housebuilder and know that we all have role to play in helping to protect the planet and its wildlife. At Vistry, we ensure that our developments include green spaces and many include a range of wildlife-friendly features such as bee and bug hotels, swift and bat bricks and hedgehog highways, which are gaps in fences to let the animals move freely between gardens.”
