Buglife’s Urban Buzz project held a celebration event today as the end of project on 31 March approaches. This ambitious project aimed to create pollinator friendly space within the urban environment across 12 cities or towns: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Falmouth, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Plymouth, St Austell, Truro, Wadebridge and York. The project set out some ambitious aims all of which have been comfortably exceeded over the duration of Buglife’s biggest ever project.
Target | Aim | Delivered | |
Number of sites | 840 | 944 | |
Number of flagship sites | 168 | 203 | |
Hectares enhanced | 210 | 325 | |
Volunteers engaged | 5,300 | 11,749 | |
People trained in land management techniques | 420 | 1,322 | |
The celebration held in Leicester a central location for the project included the announcement for the best Buzzing Hotspots created by partners and community groups as part of the Urban Buzz.
The awards went to:
City | Award | Buzzing Hotspot | Awarded to |
Birmingham | Winner | Queen Elizabeth Hospital | Awarded to the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham TCV and Birmingham Grow Your Own |
| Runner up | Kings Norton Park | Awarded to Birmingham City Council & The Friends of Kings Norton Park |
Bristol | Winner | Canford Park | Awarded to Bristol City Council, The Westbury-On-Trym Society and Sustainable Westbury |
| Runner up | Dame Emily Park | Awarded to the Dame Emily Park Project and Bristol City Council |
Cardiff | Winner | Forest Farm Garden | Awarded to City of Cardiff Council and The Green Days Project |
| Runner up | Rhydypennau Library | Awarded to City of Cardiff Council, Friends of Rhydypennau Library and South Wales Police Cardiff |
Ipswich | Winner | Sidegate Primary School | Awarded to the pupils and teachers at Sidegate Primary School, Ipswich Borough Council & Suffolk County Council |
| Runner up | Landseer Park | Awarded to Ipswich Borough Council & Butterfly Conservation Suffolk |
Leeds | Winner | Gotts Park | Awarded to Wades Charity, Leeds City Council, The Friends of Armley and Gotts Park, Leeds Wildlife Volunteers and Leeds Volunteer Rangers |
| Runner up | Water Haigh | Awarded to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Leeds City Council and the volunteer teams that supported the project |
Leicester | Winner | The University of Leicester | Awarded to The University of Leicester, and the staff & volunteers who supported the project |
| Runner up | Glenhills Boulevard | Awarded to Leicester City Council’s Paul Barker and Mick Eaton |
Plymouth | Winner | Brickfields | Awarded to Plymouth City Council |
| Runner up | Mount Wise Towers | Awarded to Plymouth Community Homes and local residents |
York | Winner | Millennium Bridge | Awarded to City of York Council & Friends of St Nicholas Fields |
| Runner up | Holgate Dock | Awarded to City of York Council & St Paul’s C of E Primary School |
Cornwall | Winner | Gyllyng Street | Awarded to Falmouth Town Council, Cornwall County Council and Cormac |
| Runner up | Linear Park | Awarded to St Austell Town Council |
| Runner up | Truro Cathedral | Awarded to Truro City Council |
| Runner up | Jubilee Park | Awarded to Wadebridge Town Council |
Paul Hetherington, Director of Communications at Buglife commented. “The Urban Buzz has been a fantastic community effort making a real difference for our precious pollinators. Who could have believed when this project was planned that local communities could identify the equivalent of over 800 football pitches worth of land that has now been turned into pollinator hot spots across our urban environment or that nearly 12,000 people would come out and play their part in creating this flowery habitat. At a time of widespread global insect declines these achievements give us all heart that there is the desire, will and ability to turn things around before it is too late. Buglife would like to thank all our project partners, funders and volunteers for this game changing intervention.”
Gillian French, Head of Grants, Biffa Award said: “At a time when our natural world is in decline projects like this one couldn’t be more vital. It is fantastic to be able to support Urban Buzz and exciting to watch the work going from strength to strength. Brand new habitats are being created for pollinators and we can’t wait to see the impact this will have on local wildlife.”
Cllr Adam Clarke, Deputy City Mayor with responsibility for Environment, Public Health and Health Integration, Leicester City Council added. “The Urban Buzz Project was a great opportunity to address a vitally important environment issue. It is a legacy of our own Urban Buzz Project in Leicester that we met and over-achieved on all the targets set.”
Local Achievement:
Phase 1 involved Birmingham, Cardiff, Plymouth and York creating 464 sites, 95 flagship sites and involving 5700 volunteers.
Phase 2
Bristol 106 sites have been created including 24 flagship sites and 2816 volunteers engaged.
Cornwall 58 sites have been created including 8 flagship sites and 500 volunteers engaged.
Ipswich 104 sites have been created including 26 flagship sites and 827 volunteers engaged.
Leeds 112 sites have been created including 25 flagship sites and 1366 volunteers engaged.
Leicester 100 sites have been created including 24 flagship sites and 540 volunteers engaged.
Major project funders have been: Biffa Award, the People’s Postcode Lottery, The Heritage Fund, ,The Garfield Weston Foundation and Bunzl; many other individuals councils, businesses and foundation have all chipped in to ensure the project’s success.
