Lord De Mauley the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Natural Environment and Science visited Leighton Buzzard on July 3 rd 2014 at the request of Andrew Selous MP and Cllr Perham of Leighton Linslade Town Council to see the project “Keep the Buzz in Leighton Buzzard”; the work of South Beds Friends of the Earth in partnership with Leighton Linslade Town Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and LL in Bloom. He visited five sites in Leighton Buzzard which are featured in this presentation and met those who had been involved in Keep the Buzz in Leighton Buzzard. This resulted in DEFRA writing to South Beds Friends of the Earth and saying Dear Victoria, Thank you ever so much for showing us around Leighton Buzzard today, and all of the fantastic projects you have been working on. It is brilliant how you have involved groups from NGOs to retailers to the local council, from pre-school aged children to the retired. It was lovely to be welcomed at the station with the wildlife area. The wild flower gardens at Mentmore Gardens and the War memorial were truly stunning, and you had obviously put in a lot of back-breaking work at Parsons Close and the River Ouzel. I was particularly impressed with how much you had been able to engage the local council, and convince them of the importance of pollinators. I know this is something that many volunteer groups find is the biggest challenge. We may come to you in future for some advice in assisting these groups to get local government buy-in! Keep up the excellent work and do thank all of the volunteers we met today. With thanks, Ruth Shin Ruth Shin| Policy Advisor – Bee and Pollinator Health, Safeguarding Plant and Animal Health Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs In November 2014 The government launched the National Pollinator Strategy a call to action to help bees and other pollinators Leighton Buzzard became one of the ten national case studies for this strategy.

Station Wildflower Area. Left to Right Ruth Shin, DEFRA, Judith Knight South beds FoE and Friends of Linslade Wood, Brendan Fitzgerald from Keltbray Aspire, Sally; Manager at Watford from London Midland, Rory Morrissey, wildlife expert, Friends of Linslade wood, Lord De Mauley, Liz Powell and Heather from British Flora who had donated plugs, Andrew Selous MP, Lester; Ticket office staff for LM, Adam Stevenson DEFRA Ken Barry South beds foE, Cllr Perham, Victoria Harvey. South Beds FoE

Local resident Peter Castling has done a lot of the planting, Dave an immediately adjacent resident let us use his hose to water the plants, Force 9 Energy who gave donations. Network Rail

John Connew, LLTC, Andrew Selous MP, Katiuscia Cancedda South Beds FoE, John Comont Conservation Manager, Beds, Cams and Northants Wildlife Trusts, V. Harvey, Lord De Mauley, Cllr Bishop who had been helping with the Carina Drive bee world, Cllr Perham Mentmore Gardens

War Memorial Garden Barry, Joanna and Dawn Joanna and Dawn live very close to the garden and are the leaders on this project Spencer Rail who helped to dig up the turf Ian Dilamore from Dilamores Furnishers who lives close by and had suggested the idea. Rose Gibbs from Natures Harvest who had hosted exhibitions on Bees

H eathwood School preforming a bee dance watched by Mentmore Pre school Waitrose Volunteers who had helped dig up the turf and plant wildflowers with Heathwood at Adams Bottom Friends of Tidenfoot Local Honey presented by the son of the local beekeeper War Memorial Garden

Heathwood Lower school after preforming the Bee dance for Lord de Mauley with Waitrose volunteers who had worked with them to plant widlfowers at Adams Bottom

with Mentmore Preschool who are growing vegetables in the War Memorial garden and with other volunteers

Parsons Close wildfowers along the brook Phil Curtis and Gennaro Borelli of LB First, and Jon Balam and Alexe Rose the Greensand Trust Town Council staff, and Ian Foll from AWE Leighton Linslade Bloom Committee

At Leighton Buzzard station Espresso Head; an Independent café whose owner lives close to, and who looks after Mill Road wildflower area, delivered coffee to Lord de Mauley Inspecting wildflowers at Parsons Close