Work to protect bees in Dorset has been held up as a shining example of what councils across the country can do to help the under-threat species.

Dorset County Council is 'leading the way in protecting our bees' as it is one of the few authorities to have a pollinator action plan in place.

Its work to reduce grass cutting next to roads, therefore saving money, is given as one example of what councils can do.

Buglife and Friends of the Earth are urging councils to adopt similar action plans. The organisations have produced a guide for local authorities; setting out policies that would help pollinators in their area. Habitat loss is a major contributor towards pollinator decline, and the guide includes easy, cost-effective measures to protect and restore pollinator-friendly habitats in their local areas.

One policy suggestion is reducing grass-cutting on road verges and areas in parks, and creating areas rich in wild-flowers.

Dorset County Council saves around £93,000 a year by only cutting rural road verges when needed, allowing wildflowers and grasses to flower and set seed.

Dr Annabel King, Senior Ecologist at DCC said: “We are very proud to be one of the first local authorities to produce and implement a pollinator action plan. The plan is specifically aimed at helping all pollinators, including bees, butterflies and moths, numbers of which have declined severely in the last 50 years."

She added: “The plan has enabled us to make significant savings – we save around £93k a year by only cutting rural road verges when needed, allowing wildflowers and grasses to flower and set seed.

“We also never use topsoil when creating new road verges anymore, as subsoil results in wildflower rich grass which is of greater use to pollinators and costs less to manage. On the Weymouth Relief Road, this method has resulted in management costs of £500 per year, as opposed to an estimated £2,700 if the verges had been spread with topsoil.”

Other councils in the south west region are also doing work which helps protect bees.

But across England and Wales the survey showed that the picture is not so positive.

The introduction of local pollinator action plans is likely to prove popular with the public. A YouGov poll for Friends of the Earth and Buglife, published last year, revealed that almost two thirds of the population agreed that local councils should be doing more to protect Britain’s bees.