Council launches Buzz About York

City of York Council is launching the ‘Buzz About York’ campaign to promote biodiversity and help wildlife flourish across the city.

We are trialling sustainable planting in flowerbeds with long-lasting, perennial plants that will provide a good source of nectar for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

This will:

• increase biodiversity;
• provide habitats for insects and other wildlife, including our crucial bees;
• reduce CO2 emissions and reduce waste by using perennial plants rather than annual bedding plants; and
• promote sustainable landscapes.

The new planting can be seen in Duncombe Place, Blake Street and Station Rise, marked with the green ‘Buzz About York’ sign, outlining what we are doing at each location.

We are also introducing a reduced mowing programme in trial areas across the city, following guidance from Plantlife and The Wildlife Trusts, which will improve the habitat for a variety of flora, fauna and insects by letting longer grass and wildflowers grow.

Cllr Jenny Kent, Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency at City of York Council, said:

“We are excited that Buzz About York will help make our city a place for Nature to thrive, and hope everyone will take part. The plants (see link below) have been chosen to feed our pollinators – vital to the wellbeing of our native species and food crops – and with the aim of being able to do well through our increasingly long spells of rain and drought.

“We hope neighbours, schools, businesses, and developers will join in – from keeping a single plant on a window ledge to letting parts of your garden grow wild, avoiding the use of pesticides and slug pellets, choosing bee friendly perennials, putting hedgehog highways in your fences, and creating green corridors, we can get York Buzzing in all the right ways. And fantastic news; the benefits of leaving grass to grow longer in certain areas can already be seen with the arrival of a Bee Orchid in one of our trial verges.”

The ‘Buzz About York’ initiative grew out of a recommendation in the Council Plan 2023-27: One City for All, to make the most of York’s green infrastructure.

To find out more, visit: Buzz About York