A PARK has been recognised for cultivating bee-friendly plants.

The Level in Brighton is one of only three parks in the south-east and one of 15 across England to win the award, given by environmental group Keep Britain Tidy as part of the Green Flag Awards.

Parks staff at Brighton and Hove City Council and volunteer gardeners at The Level are celebrating winning the Bees Needs award.

The University of Sussex has also been involved in the bee-friendly plant species for a flower bed, for the work to attract bees and other pollinating insects.

Professor Francis Ratnieks, Professor of Apiculture, said: “It is great to be partnering the enthusiastic people at The Level.

"Over the past six years, the university has been carrying out research on the use of garden plants by bees and other insects, and this is a chance to bring the research to the public.

“We made a list of 14 bee- and butterfly-friendly garden plants that bloom in the summer and supplied these to The Level where they can be used to help educate the public to see how easy it is to grow bee-friendly plants and also to count the numbers of bees and insects.”

The Bees Needs Award for Innovation is supported by Defra and the National Pollinator Strategy.

The accolade recognises a range of measures carried out as part of restoration of The Level, which was completed by the council in 2013.

Among these is the new "bee bed" in the north-west corner of the park, which showcases the attractive garden plants that people can grow themselves to benefit a variety of pollinators, an initiative with the university’s Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI).

The university's outreach work was based on research carried out in the LASI, which involved studying the attractiveness of summer-flowering garden plants to bees and other flower-visiting insects using a special garden planted behind the library on the Sussex campus.

The bee-friendly flower bed at The Level was created as part of ongoing collaboration through the Brighton and Lewes Downs Biosphere programme to improve urban green spaces. The University of Sussex is one of more than 40 local organisations involved in the biosphere partnership.