Plans to roll out new ‘bee bus stops’ across Peterborough have bee approved.

At its meeting on Tuesday (October 27), Peterborough City Council’s Cabinet approved the award for a contract to Bauer Media Outdoor UK Ltd to manage 34 bus stop locations across the city.

These bus stops will be transformed by Bauer into its Bee Bus Stops, which it has already rolled out to over 100 location across the country.

Each Living Roof bus stop includes a carefully selected plant mix designed by Bauer Media Outdoor, in collaboration with the Wildlife Trusts, to support native biodiversity and create ‘pollinator-friendly microhabitats.’

An example of how the bee bus stops look. Photo: Bauer Media Outdoor.

placeholder image — An example of how the bee bus stops look. Photo: Bauer Media Outdoor.

With a decline in flower-rich grasslands and flying insects in the UK, the Living Roofs, as they are also known, have been designed to address the need for a healthy ecological network.

The bus stops will also feature energy efficient digital screens and LEDs, ambient dimming. The electricity to power these will only be sourced from providers who source a portion or 100% of the electricity they sell to customers comes from renewable sources.

The contract includes the selling of advertising space on the bus stop display boards, which is proposed to generate the council an annual income of £140,000 (1.4m for the minimum ten-year contract or £2.8m for the full 20-year contract).

These adverts will be subject to the council’s own advertising policies which prohibit the advertising of foods high is fat, salt or sugar content. Further council policies also prohibit the advertising of gambling on council-owned advertising space.

Cabinet unanimously approved the award of the contract to Bauer Media Outdoor UK Ltd for a period of ten years, with five optional extensions for two years. This will come into effect from November 1.

Speaking at the meeting, Cabinet Member for Environment Chris Wiggin said: “As a regular bus user, I am very happy to see this renewed commitment to our bus shelters. I am very excited for the living roofs, we need to do everything we can to support biodiversity and to support bees and other pollunators, without those there are no other life. I am very happy to see these come forward.”