Plan Bee For Merton Park

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Lottery grant for path and bees

A £3,500 Lottery grant will further improve the Merton Park Green Walks and help boost the bee population.

The Willmore End Residents' Association (WERA) recently won the grant from the 'Awards For All Lottery Fund'.

It will be used to improve The Merton Park Green Walks, which follow the route of a disused railway line and runs from the Merton Park tram station to Morden Road.

The project is called Plan Bee and one of its main objectives is to plant wildflowers and trees that are particularly beneficial to bees as well as other insects such as butterflies, which are in decline globally.

This will help bees in general and in particular those in the beehives kept by the Wimbledon Beekeepers Association on land adjoining the Walk.

Several Merton Cherries are among the trees planted, supplementing efforts to create the largest collection of "Merton" fruit trees nearby next to the beehives.

The collection is the work of David Channon, the CEO of the locally-based environmental company Microbee, who advises WERA on a pro-bono basis in relation to flora and fauna on the Green Walks. David is planning an open day for the collection later in the year.

Merton fruit trees and shrubs were developed by the John Innes Institute when it was based in Merton. Hence they are unique to the borough, and whilst some are no longer available it is hoped that as many as possible can be preserved and their numbers increased in the coming years.

May 8, 2013