Corby and Kettering
After reading about Butterfly Conservation, North Northamptonshire Councils Grounds Services Team reached out for guidance on developing a series of butterfly banks along the edges of some of its open spaces and parks.
Dr Jamie Wildman from Butterfly Conservation explains: “Butterfly banks are, in effect, mini grassland habitats rich in early successional herbs that rely on disturbed ground. In their most simple form, they are around 1m high, created using nutrient-poor subsoil, and have long, south-facing aspects. Banks are seeded or plug-planted with plants appropriate to butterflies in the area to create breeding habitat for some of our most threatened species. In support of the scheme, Butterfly Conservation has developed some ‘Wild Spaces’ guidance for the banks, which sets out how they should connect to wider natural habitat such as water courses, scrub, and woodland.”
Dave Lane from the Councils Grounds team said, “As we an excess of sub soils that had built up in our cemeteries for many years, we had the perfect bank building material ready to hand and has allowed us to raise up over 250 liner metres of southern facing embankments, which were then planted up with an Emorsgate mix advised by Butterfly Conservation. We also added some annuals such as Cornflowers to ensure we had a good showing at bloom time”.
The project was also supported by Northants Groundwork, a community development charity, which donated seeds and organised volunteers to help spread them on one of the main banks.
The Councils team had to install the banks in late Autumn 2022 to allow the seed to settle and vernalise over winter months (to expose a seed or plant to cold temperatures so that it will blossom). This preparation was rewarded with astonishing blooms in the spring and summer of 2023, with 2024 being even better as the banks have settled. Overall, this simple scheme has had a significant impact, providing large amounts of nectar rich plants for butterflies and other pollinators.
“This is an unusual scheme for a local authority and quite outside the normal run of our open space maintenance. Partnering with Butterfly Conservation gave us the confidence to try some of the Banks and of course now after the year one success of the scheme, we are so glad we did. Indeed so much so that we are now planning to do some more” Liam Faulkner, Head of Environmental Services, North Northamptonshire Council.
