Bee friendly Leek

Leek has secured the status as a “bee friendly” town as the result of the efforts of Town and District Councillor Bill Cawley. The principle of a bee friendly town was fixed by the London based charity ‘Bee Friendly Trust’, who are looking to work with towns around the country to establish more areas to sustain bees and other pollinators. Bee Friendly towns meet certain criteria, such as, creating bee friendly schools, sharing seeds and being creative in supporting bees and other pollinators in gardens and plots . Cllr Cawley contacted the Trust last year and has kept the organisation informed of developments such as the “ Bee Hotel” scheme that he and Cllr Taylor have supported at Westwood First School in Leek. (See photo).

Leek joins Arundel in Sussex, Tring in Herts and Kenilworth in Warwickshire as the first four designated “Bee Friendly “towns

Councillor Cawley said “ It is an honour to receive this recognition. Leek is the most northerly of the four towns . I think it is important to make sure that the award is not seen as tokenistic and we see this as the start of a process and not the end . I think it is important that we have established a group and we look forward to sharing experience and solutions. Things that have worked as well as things that have not worked. After all this is a learning opportunity as much as anything else. We would want to work with local groups such as the well organised bee keeper organisations. One intention I think all Leek Town Councillors will support is encouraging all the schools in Leek to be a network of eco communities.”