MONTGOMERYSHIRE Friends of the Earth (FOE) group will launch a new project to make Newtown an official Bee Friendly town on Saturday.

The group will be holding a launch event on Saturday, between 10.30am and 2pm at the Bear Lanes Shopping Centre in Newtown.

There will be children’s activities, stalls, entertainment and free wildflower seeds as well as advice on how we can all be a little more bee friendly in our gardens.

The Bee Friendly (Caru Gwenyn in Welsh) scheme in Wales asks communities, schools, organisations and others to take a few simple steps to encourage and protect bees and other pollinators and then apply for accreditation from the Welsh Government as an official ‘Bee Friendly’ place.

Mel Chandler of Montgomeryshire FOE, said: “To gain Bee Friendly status, all a group has to do is to complete a set of actions to help pollinators from four different categories: food, habitat, community involvement and pesticides.

“Once accreditation has been granted, the organisation can officially call itself ‘Bee Friendly’ and use the logo, putting it on a website or maybe even a village or town sign.

“This is the first national scheme of its kind in the UK and probably the world so let’s get buzzing and make Newtown a Bee Friendly town.”

If you would like to get involved, please contact Bleddyn Lake at Bleddyn.lake@foe.co.uk or visit the Montgomeryshire FOE Facebook page.

For further information on the Bee Friendly scheme, visit the Wales Biodiversity Partnership website www.biodiversitywales.org.uk/Wales-Action-Plan-for-Pollinators