Housebuilder Redrow is continuing to strengthen its relationship with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT), helping to reverse a serious decline in the UK’s bumblebee population.
As the only major home builder to partner with the trust, Redrow is undertaking a pilot project at one of its developments in Exeter, Devon, to create a tailored pollinator friendly habitat. It will use the project as a blueprint to roll-out a nationwide scheme to create similar wildflower areas on all of its developments in the future.
Rob Macdiarmid, Redrow’s Group sustainability director, said: “We greatly value our partnership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and we’re looking forward to forging a long-term relationship that will enable us to create more and more bee-friendly habitats across the UK in a bid to boost bumblebee numbers.
“Our work at Saxon Brook in Pinhoe, Exeter, is the first project we’ve undertaken on this scale within a new development and it’s expected that the knowledge we gain will be shared across our technical departments in all 14 of our housing divisions to expand the scheme far and wide.”
Saxon Brook, on the eastern edge of Pinhoe, has been granted planning consent for the first three phases, which will comprise 165 brand new homes, with a further two phases to follow, subject to planning. A mix of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes will be available.
The BBCT will be working with Redrow’s landscaping contractors on how to best design and manage the site to ensure the benefits are felt longer-term, long after developments have been completed, for the benefit of new residents, the wider community and, of course, the bumblebee population.
In the last 80 years bumblebee populations have declined dramatically. Two species have become nationally extinct and several others have seen their numbers plummet.
For more information on BBCT visit bumblebeeconservation.org
