Over the last few years we have adopted a new way of managing land to encourage biodiversity. 

By cutting our grass less often we have seen native wildflower and plants thrive, creating a better habitat for bees, butterflies, invertebrates, birds, small mammals, amphibians and reptiles.

Some people embraced the new approach, but it’s taken time to grow on others.

Over the winter months our grounds and biodiversity team have again been busy preparing land and planting flowers and shrubs ready for the grass cutting season which started in March.

Our land has been placed into three broad categories:

1. Grassed areas that are enjoyed by the community for recreation or socialising, or that can potentially restrict visibility if left uncut, will be cut regularly during spring and summer. 
2. Other areas will be partly maintained with border cuts and made accessible with walkways, but with parts still being left for nature.
3. Several areas will continue to be maintained as wildflower meadows.

As we’ve already been doing this for a couple of years, in some areas we are starting to see lots of beautiful flowers, long grass, and trees. We expect to see even more year-on-year, but it can take up to five years for native wildflower meadows to really take hold, so things might not look neat straight away.

With many hectares of land throughout Neath Port Talbot, changing our approach will make a big difference to nature.