It’s Love Parks Week!

From 23 July to 1 August, it's the Keep Britain Tidy Love Parks Week 2021, and the Council is celebrating all things parks!

Beautiful wildflower meadows that were planted across Bedford as part of the 'Bugs and Bees' project are an explosion of colour at the moment, helping to celebrate Love Parks Week.

Addison Howard Park, one of Bedford Borough's Green Flag Award winning spaces, has a particularly stunning display of wildflowers. Wildflowers have also been sown in other areas, including Woodlands Country Park and Great Denham as part of the same project.

Through the 'Bugs and Bees' project, the Council are looking for ways to make local parks and open spaces more friendly to bees and insects, by using more wildlife friendly maintenance regimes.

Meadows have also been created in part of Jubilee Park, Brickhill Drive Open Space, on the Kempston Riverside Path and along Longholme Way simply by reducing mowing to once per year in these areas.

Parks and open spaces have been a vital lifeline for lots of people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bedford Borough is lucky to have lots of beautiful green spaces from the Embankment and Mill Meadows to our award-winning Green Flag Parks - Addison Howard Park, Priory Country Park, Harrold-Odell Country Park and Bedford Park.

Mayor Dave Hodgson said "The Bugs and Bees project is making our parks more varied and beautiful places- with mown areas where people can walk and play easily, and the wildflower meadows being left to grow creating a great spectacle at the right time of year, and providing crucial environments for local pollinators to flourish. Love Parks Week is a great opportunity to remember how much our parks mean to us all and what we can all do to keep them beautiful, respected local areas. Please, use your local park responsibly and ensure that any litter is either taken home with you or put in a bin and work with us to keep our local parks beautiful, clean spaces that we can all enjoy."