Skateboarding and wildflowers may seem an unusual combination – but a Wiveliscombe student is bringing the two together and held a successful event in the town last Saturday (August 22), for volunteers to do just that.

The Skate Park Pollinator Volunteers’ Day saw 40 volunteers of all ages turn up to plant seeds and plug plants at the Wiveliscombe Skate Park on the Recreation Ground, after organiser Billy Tompsett won support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Somerset Wildlife Trust, the Recreation Ground committee, and local friends and contacts.

This is the second such event Billy has organised, after a successful planting earlier this year at a skate park in Bath, where he is at university, with funding and support from Kew Gardens, Somerset Wildlife Trust and others.

“I grew up on a skateboard, with the natural environment around me, and I wanted to do something to bring them together as I realised how unfriendly skate parks can be to biodiversity,” said Billy, who was born in Wiveliscombe and helped campaign for the town’s skate park.

“The sites usually have natural wildlife kicked out, and require thousands of litres of water to produce, so there is a big carbon footprint. They are not often supportive for pollinators, so this is trying to reverse that, to have a resource so people can learn about how important pollinators are, and have an impact on biodiversity.”

An ecological survey of the Wiveliscombe skate park area was done, and skateboarders and many others turned up to prepare the site and plant around 400 grams of suitable seeds and 50 plants, with another round planned before winter.

Now Billy hopes the idea will spread to skate parks elsewhere, and is planning to develop an online package to help people create their own wildflower sites there.