‘Wildlife will be well looked after’ in allotment scheme

Wildlife will be “well looked after” as part of a €200,000 public allotments scheme being developed on grassland in a Co Cork park, the people driving the project insisted yesterday.

Fine Gael county councillor Derry Canty dismissed concerns for butterflies and bees who breed on the site as the first sod was turned on the 70-space allotment project in Ballincollig’s Regional Park.

“The butterflies and bees will be well looked after,” Mr Canty said. “As part of the overall development of the allotments, a special area to the east of the site has been designated for the planting of wild plants and flowers to attract butterflies and bees.

“And when people begin planting their allotments, their plants and vegetables will, as any gardener knows, attract butterflies and bees too.”

The allotment project is being developed on an area of grassland maintained by Cork County Council.

Mr Canty, who has been campaigning for years for the development of allotments in the town, dismissed concerns raised by local wildlife enthusiast Philip O’Connor about the project’s impact on a butterfly species and a species of bumblebee, whose numbers are dwindling.

Mr O’Connor spoke out in the Irish Examiner yesterday after council workers cut grass in the area for yesterday’s sod turning.

The amateur photographer, who has studied the area for years, said it is an ideal breeding ground for the rare common blue butterfly, which lays its larva at the base of the bird’s foot trefoil flower — which grows in the meadow — and the red-arsed bumblebee.

He said the grass cutting should have been delayed for several weeks until after the animals’ breeding season. However, a spokesperson for the project said the area has been assessed by wildlife and archaeo-logy experts and no issues arose.

There will be over 70 plots available to the public, with some offered to local school, and a large plot has been reserved for Ballincollig Tidy Towns to allow them to grow plants, flowers and shrubs for use around the town.

The cost of renting the plots has yet to be decided.