Swords buzzing after award win  

A NORTHSIDE group have been recognised for their efforts in protecting the population of pollinating insects.

Swords TidyTowns won a Pollinator Award at the Supervalu National TidyTowns competition held recently at The Helix in DCU.  

One third of the 99 bee species in Ireland are threatened with extinction. This is due to the drastic reduction in the amount of food (wildflowers) and safe nesting sites in Ireland’s landscapes. 

The All Ireland Pollinator Plan was launched in 2015 and has seen communities, businesses, parks, schools and farms get involved to help pollinator insects survive and thrive.

To contribute to this project, the Swords TidyTowns committee ran public workshops to help raise awareness of the importance of pollinating insects and actions that can be taken to help them. They worked in conjunction with Fingal County Council to identify and protect pollinator-friendly sites in the area. 

They also worked with the council and local residents’ groups on pollinator-friendly cutting regimes on grass areas and roundabouts. 

In Swords Town Park, pollinator-friendly flowers were planted and special beds for bees were put in place on North Street.

The Local Authority Pollinator Award aims to encourage groups to implement pollinator-friendly actions in their towns and villages as part of the TidyTowns competition. 

It supports the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and is co ordinated and sponsored by the heritage offices and biodiversity offices of Local Authorities across Ireland, in partnership with the National Biodiversity Data Centre. 

There were 66 entries from 22 counties for the Pollinator Award this year and the standard of entries was extremely high.

Commending the Swords TidyTown committee, Fingal County Council’s senior park executive Hans Visser said: “I’m delighted that the efforts to protect and preserve pollinator insects by Swords’ TidyTown committee has been recognised. 

“As well as maintaining habitats and food sources for bees, the committee has helped keep Swords looking colourful, clean and litter free.”