Winning an award on National Bee Day

Boyton Place, Persimmon Homes Suffolk’s innovative housing development in Haverhill has won a Bee Friendly Award from the Bee Friendly Trust.

Making the announcement on Saturday 20^th May which was World Bee Day, the Bee Friendly Trust recognised the unique design features of the Boyton Place development which supports bees and other pollinators to flourish in the area.

Special features in the development include bee hotels, a new bee trail and special seed types to encourage pollination. This has helped this new development site achieve a 32 per cent increase in biodiversity

Dr Luke Dixon, Bee Friendly Trust co-founder, said:

“We are excited to be extending our Bee Friendly Awards to include communities from local garden groups to towns and villages, and even new housing developments, ensuring bees and other wildlife are thought about in the growing urban environment.

“The Bee Friendly Awards are a celebration of all the people coming together around the country and creating new habitats where nature can thrive."

Beth Deacon, Planner at Suffolk added:

“We’ve been creative and innovative in our approach to ecology at Boyton Place, Haverhill and we’re delighted that this has been recognised by the Bee Friendly Trust.

“Our starting point was to put ecology at the centre of our plans for this beautiful new community and this has really paid off with a 32 per cent increase in biodiversity on site. It really shows what can be achieved when we consider the needs of nature and residents collectively.”  

Another key aspect of the plans on site is to help inform and encourage local residents to support bees and other pollinators. Classroom workshops are planned with local schools and residents will also be given bespoke seed packets to help grow the local ecosystem. The purpose of this is help people understand that without bees pollinating wild trees and flowers, many insects, birds, bats and many other mammals further up the food chain would also suffer.

We are also keen to use the designs of local children to support the bee trail that will be delivered on site. Boards along the trail will provide people with information and guidance for what they can do in their own gardens.