About the Essex Recorders partnership

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Essex Field Club
registered charity
no 1113963

in partnership with..

Basildon Council

Buglife

Butterfly Conservation

Essex Amphibian & Reptile Group

Essex Bat Group

Essex Birdwatching Society

Essex Wildlife Trust

GeoEssex



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East of England B-Lines project

B-Lines was identified as a landscape scale initiative to reverse pollinator declines in the National Pollinator Strategy's Implementation Plan, aiding their movement across the fragmented landscape by connecting up the best remaining wildflower-rich habitats through the creation or restoration of wildflower habitats. B-Lines aims to coordinate the delivery of wildflower-rich habitats to aid pollinator movement across the landscape. For more information visit Buglife B-lines web link link and the new guidance for local authorities on producing a Local Pollinator Action Plan - see Helping Pollinators Locally link

Along with a wide range of conservation and landowner partners, the Essex Recorders partnership has been working with the invertebrate conservation charity Buglife on their B-Lines initiative, identifying and developing wildflower-rich habitats across Essex as part of a national project to develop landscape scale networks for pollinators. Buglifes online B-Lines hub includes an interactive map where habitat work can be uploaded to collate information on wildflower enhancements across the UK, as well as specific pollinator advice.

B-Lines are 3km corridors within which wildflower habitat restoration and creation can be focused and co-ordinated to maximise gains for pollinators.  Habitat can be delivered by organisations, landowners, businesses, communities or individuals.  Contribution to the B-Lines can be achieved through a variety of wildflower enhancement methods, such as habitat restoration (e.g.  Scrub clearance/re-introducing management/green haying), wildflower meadow creation in species poor grasslands, wildlife gardens, landowners entering agri-environment schemes, orchard planting, disturbance management and brownfield habitat creation, bee friendly formal planting, living roofs, etc.

Where relevant, planning applications in or around B-Lines should consider what they can contribute to the growing resources of pollinators in B-Lines.  This will help to ensure that mitigation proposals align with ongoing work in the surrounding area for pollinators. It is important to note, however, that any planning applications should seek to protect and enhance the wildlife interests of all taxonomic groups and habitats, not pollinators and their requirements in isolation.

Information on the B-Lines in Essex is included in our datasearch reports, with a map showing B-lines in relation to a search area. For more information please see our available datasets.