BEES awakening from hibernation in the area around Swinden Quarry near Cracoe are to get a helping hand.

Quarry owner Tarmac, paid £30,000 into the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund in 2020, the first year of its operation, and some of that money has now gone to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, to help fund its Bee Together project.

Ian McPherson, member champion for the natural environment at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, said: “At this time of year queen bumblebees are waking up from hibernation and might be seen foraging and looking for suitable nest sites. We depend on bees and other wild pollinators for our food, but insect numbers are in decline.

“YDMT, as usual, is doing work that nobody else is doing. Its Bee Together project will assist communities to create ‘mini-meadows’ and new solitary bee nesting sites. Parish councils will be helped to put together ‘pollinator action plans’, while local people will be offered training in meadow management and pollinator identification.”

Bee Together has also received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Yorkshire Water and the national park's Sustainable Development Fund.

Mr McPherson added:“Bee Together is exactly the sort of project that the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund can support.

“In the first year of the fund, we made a total of eight grants including to the Upper Wharfedale School in Threshfield for biodiversity enhancement within the school grounds and to the Friends of Embsay with Eastby Nature Reserve. We look forward to the fund supporting more people who are looking to increase plant and animal life in the locality of the quarry. Please get your applications in now.”

In December 2019, the park authority gave Tarmac planning permission for the deepening of Swinden Quarry and an extension of time allowed for the winning and working of limestone until 2039.

The authority and Tarmac entered into a section 106 planning agreement which means Tarmac will make an annual contribution of £30,000, until 2040, to the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund, which is administered by the national park.

New applications to the national park's sustainable development fund. Applications need to be submitted by April 9. To find out more, visit:yorkshiredales.org.uk/park-authority/living-and-working/sustainable-development-fund/