FEARS have been raised that a mining bee habitat will be destroyed when a new development is built on the outskirts of Salisbury.

The large colony of yellow-legged mining bees lives in a grassy bank running alongside the pavement of Wilton Road by the junction of New Zealand Avenue.

Plans have been lodged to demolish the building on site, a former youth centre dating from the 1930s, and replace it with six homes - a pair of semi-detached, three bedroom houses and four, three-bedroom terraced houses.

Applicant Nero Developments says the building has been disused “in a poor state of repair” since 2014.

But discussing the plans at a recent Salisbury City Council planning meeting, councillors heard the grassy bank which is due to be destroyed is a prime mining bee habitat.

Reading out a letter from local resident and keen ecologist Piers Mobsby, councillor John Walsh said: “The bank supports many hundreds of the yellow-legged mining-bee. It is wonderful to see when the bees are active in March and April, and again in June. The rest of the year there is nothing to see as the bees remain underground for most of their life cycle.

“I know that the bee is not listed as rare or protected in its own right. However, I do think that it should, nonetheless, be brought to the attention of the developer and the planners. There is currently huge concern regarding the threat to pollinators that provide essential ‘environmental services’.

“The local authority is already taking steps to be more pollinator friendly by changing planting and mowing schemes alongside roads, in the parks, churchyards etc and Salisbury is ‘Bee City’, making great strides in encouraging the public to be ‘bee aware’ and do all they can to help pollinators.

"Honeybees are of course familiar to everyone as pollinators but they carry out only a very limited part of the pollination required for both food plants and wild plants.

"Over 250 other species of bee do the bulk of the work and many of these are far more efficient even when pollinating the same plants as the honey bee.”

The city council voted to support the application - 17/04675/FUL - on the condition that consideration is taken to retain the mining-bee habitat and issues over limited parking are addressed.

A consultation on the plans runs until today (Thursday) with a Wiltshire Council target decision date of July 12.