Hundreds more public open spaces will get wildflower meadows over the next few years after a successful roll-out of a biodiversity project this summer.
Housing provider Flagship Group, which manages around 1,200 green spaces across the east of England, expanded its wildflower meadows scheme to around 200 sites in spring and summer, following a pilot scheme of around 30 sites last year.
Daniel Salliss, Flagship’s biodiversity and land manager, said it had been a “learning curve” as his team worked to discover where communities were happy to see wildflower meadows created, and which areas they preferred the grass to be kept short for ball games and other uses.
Mr Salliss said: “It is a change from the way we used to manage our green spaces when we regularly kept all the grass cut short. But the key thing is that we know that it’s better for nature.
“It’s about listening to the residents and making it work the best for them, as well as for natures Having a range of different habitats on a site is good for biodiversity, and it’s much better than keeping the grass short everywhere.
“And because longer grass absorbs more groundwater it can help prevent flooding, and it is also better for preserving carbon in soil.”
Mr Salliss said there had been a lot of positive feedback, with people reporting spotting more bees, birds and insects such as stag beetles and meadow blue butterflies.
And in July, Cromer Green Spaces presented its first ever ‘biodiversity recognition plaque’ to Flagship for the wildflower meadow created at Meadow Close, off Hall Road in the seaside town.
As we head into winter, all of Flagship’s sites will be cut regularly until next spring. From then, around 350 green spaces will be involved in the scheme over the warmer months.
Mr Salliss said many of the meadows should be more colourful next year thanks to wildflower seed planting. Flagship aims to have meadows on most of its green spaces by 2030.
Main image: Flagship Group’s biodiversity and land manager, Daniel Salliss, left, and neighbourhood operations manager Ryan Cox at one of the wildflower meadow sites in Horning
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