Madam,

On 2 July a group of 20 people attended a guided walk around Aberystwyth Municipal Cemetery.

We were a mixed group of all ages from babes in arms to those of us in our 90s. We were members of the Aberystwyth Botanical Society, The Greener Aberystwyth Group and the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales - there to see the incredible range of wild flowers that flourish on that site, and we were very impressed.

We saw a beautiful variety of meadow flowers: Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Creeping-Jenny and Fox-and-Cubs to name but a few. Many butterflies and bees were benefitting from the ready source of nectar and it was good to see their needs being met in this little corner of natural beauty.

This has been achieved by mowing the whole area once every year, usually in August, after the flowers have had chance to set seed. This helps the wild flowers to thrive and stops it becoming overgrown with brambles.

Combining this with mowing the main paths regularly keeps a good balance of the needs of visitors with the needs of wildlife, and it is also good to know that the public may request that a path be mown to a particular grave for ease of access.

We would like to congratulate the Greener Aberystwyth Group for their hard work on creating a management plan for the cemetery, in partnership with Ceredigion County Council, that provides both for nature, and for people. The cemetery is now one of the very best in the whole county for its wild flowers.

Yours etc,

Fiona Corke, chair of the North Ceredigion Group of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales; Chloe Griffiths, Aberystwyth Botanical Society.

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