Leading Mid Wales hotel awarded grant to develop biodiversity garden

​Sales manager Lauren Bingley with sales and groups co-ordinator Scott Bibb-Macgregor and sales and events co-ordinator Tom Roberts in the biodiversity garden at the Metropole Hotel & Spa.

The Metropole Hotel & Spa in Llandrindod Wells has been awarded a Local Places for Nature grant by Powys County Council to develop its biodiversity garden.
 
The hotel has teamed up with Wild Llandrindod, a local volunteer group with 855 members that studies biodiversity and microbiology within the town, to turn its large solar panel garden into a thriving biodiversity habitat and sensory garden.
 
“The group has already found insects in our gardens that have never been logged before in Wales,” said Lauren Bingley, the hotel’s sales manager. “Phase one of planting 150 wild-thyme plants in between the solar panels is now completed and the next stage is the build of our habitat pods.”

​Lauren said the two insects previously unrecorded in Wales are mites species which were found on an initial survey of the gardens by Dr Joseph Botting. He was recently in the news with Dr Lucy Muir as they discovered a fossil which could help plug gaps in how evolution proceeded after the Cambrian explosion.

​“While the project is still in its early stages, we are keen to involve more people in the research, so if anybody is interested in contributing, please feel free to contact me directly on [email protected],” said Lauren Bingley, The Metropole Hotel & Spa’s  sales manager

“We’ve also just begun a really promising conversation with Grace Marston, community wildlife officer at Radnorshire Wildlife Trust. She’s leading a project called Wilder Communities and we are exploring how we might collaborate, particularly in finding ways to make use of other areas around the hotel to support urban wildlife.
 
“Grace is especially passionate about creating habitats in built-up spaces, so there’s real potential for exciting developments here.”
 
The Metropole Hotel is a longstanding member of  MWT Cymru, an independent organisation that represents more than 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Powys, Ceredigion and Southern Eryri (Snowdonia).