Evotech helps Crowngate Shopping Centre open Bug Hotel to increase biodiversity

Bugs, bees and butterflies can now find their new home in Worcester next to the Crowngate as schoolchildren unveiled a new bug hotel. The brightly-decorated structure in Saw Mill garden is part of Crowngate’s initiative to create a biodiverse area for insects and hidey-holes for creatures to nest. Hedgehogs, toads, ladybirds and woodlice are all hoped to take up residence in the coming weeks after children from Perry Wood Primary School helped decorate the structure with artwork, twigs, leaves, corrugated cardboard and tree bark. 

Mayor of Worcester Cllr Louis Stephen unveiled the new hotel alongside the pupils, Crowngate centre manager Mike Lloyd and community lead Maya Ryall on Monday 17 July. Fifteen-year-old Maya has always been passionate about wildlife and as a former Perry Wood pupil - she saw it as an opportunity to spread an eco-message. 

Mayor Cllr Stephen - who is the city’s first Green mayor - explained why the cause was close to his heart, “This is fantastic to see the increase of biodiversity in the area - which is something I’m really passionate about. Sometimes children can be frightened of bugs and insects and this is encouraging them to value them and help preserve them.” 

During the day, children had the chance to make their own pom-pom bugs and the Centre’s building maintenance provider Evotech Technical Services sponsored fifty miniature bug hotels so pupils could take home their very own Bug Hotel. 

Crowngate centre manager Mike Lloyd said it was just one of the many initiatives that the Centre had put in place to continue their eco friendly drive. “We have always tried to do as much as we can for biodiversity and to be as sustainable as possible. Children will be able to continue their great work by taking home their own bug hotel as well.”