Minister for Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs, Edwin Poots has launch a £100,000 Queens Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award for rural Northern Ireland community groups whilst visiting the walled garden at Greenmount College.
The award will be in the form of a single one off grant to a rural community group to create a pollinator garden to celebrate the queens platinum jubilee.
The award will be delivered by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and launching the award at the walled garden, Minister Poots said: “It gives me great pleasure to launch this competition to celebrate her majesty Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee. Like the queens outstanding reign I want to see the creation of an outstanding pollinator garden to mark this glorious occasion, something that will stand the same test of time as the queens reign has.”
The Minister commented: “I have made a significant effort to increase my department’s investment in pollinators by implementing the Rural Community Garden Pollinator scheme the School Pollinator Garden Scheme and now the crowning glory so to speak, the Queens Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award. I think the creation of a large scale pollinator garden is a unique way of marking this achievement by the queen.”
Dr Ian Humphreys, Chief Executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful said:
“We’ve been delighted at the tremendous response to the Minister’s recent pollinator grants and are looking forward to seeing a wide range of smaller pollinator friendly gardens bloom this summer at schools and community spaces across Northern Ireland. This incredible £100,000 grant to mark the Queen’s Jubilee makes a real statement about DAERA’s commitment to investing in biodiversity recovery and will gladden the hearts of nature lovers of all ages.”
Notes to editors:
- Details on the Queens Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award can be found at: https://www.liveherelovehere.org/cgi-bin/generic?instanceID=79
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