The event, which lasts two hours, begins at 10.30am from the Farmers’ Market in Sovereign Way car park, at the stall run by Friends of the Earth, who are organising the walk.
Parking is free in public car parks, and all ages are welcome, though dogs may not take part. It is suggested that participants bring a magnifying glass or binoculars and a notebook.
Bees play a vital part in nature, and in our economy it would cost UK farmers £1.8billion a year to pollinate their crops without bees.
Yet they are facing a huge loss of habitat – the UK has lost 97 per cent of its wildflower meadows since 1945, and are also being decimated by pesticides.
Last year the European Union voted to impose a permanent ban on the outdoor use of three bee-harming pesticides.
The walk is being held in the town rather than the countryside in order to show people that bees can thrive wherever habitats are made available for them.
Anthony Bales, of the local branch of Friends of the Earth, said: “Actions such as growing bee-friendly flowers make a beneficial difference to bees and other pollinators, wherever this takes place, from planting in a window box to creating new wildflower meadows.”
The walk will take in Angel Community Garden, formerly a patch of waste ground in Sainsbury’s car park, which shows how small spaces in urban areas can be transformed to support bees and other pollinators.
It will follow a stretch of the Medway by Big Bridge, emerging on Lyons Crescent and taking in the graveyard at St Peter & St Paul Church.
It will also visit the Roadside Reserve between the London and Shipbourne Roads, created by Kent Wildlife Trust and Kent County Council.
Email: tandm.foe@gmail.com
