North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson and his wife Jo visited B&Q Swindon earlier this week to learn how the UK's largest garden centre is helping to save the bee population.
Launched earlier last week, Bee Café workshops at B&Q's Kids Can Do It centres will help teach children how to create a bee friendly habitat at home. The workshops for 7-11 year olds let children get hands on, by creating their very own Bee Café with pollen rich plants.
Justin helped the kids get stuck in whilst learning about why it is so important to help the bee population. Earlier this year, as a precautionary measure, B&Q was one of the first major UK retailers to pledge to help protect the bee by voluntarily withdrawing pesticides containing imidacloprid, the pesticide which has been proven to be harmful to bees.
Bees are vital to the UK's food security and economy and recent studies have shown a drop of up to 30 per cent in bee colonies in Europe due to a variety of potential causes including disease, habitat loss, certain pesticides, and pollution.
Justin Tomlinson MP said: "It's fantastic that local children can learn about the plight of the bee which has been very topical recently. The kids have had a lot of fun here and Jo and I learnt a lot about what we can do in our garden to encourage bees. Local residents have been supporting national campaigns to support our vital bee population and this is a really fun, practical way for children and parents to help play their part."
Matthew Sexton, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at B&Q says "Our Bee Friendly campaign is ramping up as we're now teaching kids across the UK how to help the bee population. Our new workshops are proving to be popular with children as we help educate the next generation of gardeners."
