There was a buzz about the Douglas council chamber at the authority’s most recent meeting.

Members have been discussing an initiative in which wild areas in the capital were left to grow to try to help the bee population by providing ’pit stops’ for pollinators.

Despite several councillors praising the ’Plan Bee’ scheme, there were concerns that leaving around 20 grass verges uncut during the summer made the capital look untidy.

St George’s ward councillor Natalie Byron said that ’some of the areas looked stunning’ but Stephen Pitts - chairman of the committee responsible for the project - said that the most calls he has had this year were to do with uncut grass. He added they didn’t have enough time to plant wild flowers in the bee-friendly spaces this year due to ’problems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic’.

Council leader David Christian was the most critical of the scheme, saying: ’While these areas of the town should be encouraged, it shouldn’t be of detriment to the look of the town.’

As the ’shop window’ of the island, Mr Christian was forthright in his opinion the capital needed to appear ’smart, neat, clean and tidy’ - not, as he described it this year, ’scruffy’ because of the uncut verges.

However, other members attempted to take the sting out of his criticism.

Making his maiden appearance at a council meeting, Derby Ward member Devon Watson called for fruit trees to be considered for the Plan Bee initiative, claiming they ’look good and would be less messy’ than long grass.

The majority of councillors were in support of the project, but were aware this year’s efforts were far from the finished article and accepted there would need to be changes next year.