17 January 2023
Pesticide-Free Cambridge (BG) joined Cambridge City Council Biodiversity Officer and Community Engagement Ranger who met the Happy Bee Streets group for a discussion and a short tour of Ascham Road, Atherton Close & Gurney Way (in West Chesterton) so as to agree on how the council can best organise Happy Bee Street (a tie up between Cambridge City Council and Pesticide-Free Cambridge) scheme to maximise positive impacts on biodiversity . It was agreed that the council would not mow around all of the trees given that they had all been planted with bulbs and that some stretches of verge could be taken out of the normal mowing rota (as per residents' wishes for long grass).
Precise dates for mowing were to be finalised later but probably one early (February), one midsummer (June) and one late (October). Many of the verges on Ascham Road are damaged by pedestrian and cycle traffic to and from Milton Road Primary School. One solution to this problem would be a raised bed which could be planted and tended by the Happy Bee Street group, perhaps in conjunction with Milton Road pupils. It was agreed that council would fund such a bed as a trial solution. As the verges on Ascham Road are relatively wide it was also suggested by the group that they be planted up with a 'wild' flower seed mix. Counci reps agreed that long stretch of verge outside the new Register Office (30m long by 2m wide) could be lain with wildflower turf taken from the new South Cambridge station works in Hobson’s Park this spring. Likewise the larger area of amenity grass within the Register Office (25m x 8m) could also be lain with the same wildflower turf. The Happy Bee Streets group were pleased to learn that council had been monitoring their streets for the last 6 months since their Happy Bee Streets application to assess sight-lines, access issues and so on.
