New Lease Of Life for Bees&Seas At Brooklands Park

A range of organisations have come together to help transform a derelict area at Brooklands Park to be used by people and wildlife.

The Bees&Seas project aims to revive a space excluded from the local council's masterplan - between Worthing and Lancing - creating a unique ecological link between the sea and the South Downs, as well as an accessible nature hub for local people.

Using donated and locally sourced materials, and galvanising support from volunteers and residents, the Bees&Seas project partners 'We Are FoodPioneers CIC, The Friends of Brooklands Park and Creative Waves CIC will establish a site and an exciting programme of activity to support and encourage awareness of pollinators and learning.

At the site, two large green roofs will be built on donated shipping containers which are due to be transformed into pollinator friendly classroom and workshop spaces for a wide range of community uses.

The area will also include a pollinator lawn with local orchard trees, water harvesting, a herb garden, an edible skip garden, natural and viewing beehives, a wildlife habitat, bug hotels, flowering climbers, as well as natural artwork interspersed with edible plants to mask the existing industrial fence lines.

The project partners have already secured funding from the South Downs National Park Trust towards the build of the site, and have also received an award from the Postcode Local Trust, along with funding and support from Adur & Worthing Council.

The project has also received the generous support from local business, Sussex Transport, which has removed two old shipping containers, replacing them with two donated units ready for their transformation into a classroom space.

Damian Pulford, Managing Director at Sussex Transport is delighted to have made a significant in kind donation.

He said:

"We will be able to support this much needed local project with the space needed to create a classroom and workshop space for pollinator and wider nature education. We need the next generation to help us find creative solutions for a thriving natural environment, and the shipping containers we have supplied will enable that to happen."

Debs Butler, Director at We Are FoodPioneers is delighted with the support the Bees&Seas project has already attracted.

She said:

"We can't thank the local business and wider community enough for the 'in kind' and 'financial' contributions that have been pledged to this fantastic project which will see a site at Brooklands Park transformed for local people and wildlife. We are thrilled to be working with the local council as well, supporting the Brooklands master plan which sits adjacent to our new pollinator hub."

The project partners are now seeking support to help them reach the fundraising target of £10,000.

Contributions can be made by visiting the website https://www.spacehive.com/beesandseas