Lancaster City Council has announced a pledge to become a Butterfly-Friendly City in partnership with national charity Butterfly Conservation.
Councillors have made the announcement following the results of the charity’s 2025 Big Butterfly Count which showed yet more evidence that native species are in long-term decline.
The authority has promised to achieve five goals in the next three years:
1. Creating a biodiversity plan to save nature
2. Improving and creating places for butterflies and moths
3. Ensuring access to green spaces within 15 minutes’ walk
4. Ending the use of pollinator-killing pesticides
5. Taking light pollution seriously
Councillors are also encouraging residents to take their own actions across the city for butterflies, moths and other wildlife.
Lancaster City Council cabinet member for climate action Sam Riches said: "I am delighted that Lancaster City Council is committing to work with Butterfly Conservation and other partners, developing innovative ways to support and protect these beautiful creatures and also helping many of our less-regarded invertebrates.
"These projects will help people around the district to enhance our green spaces and gardens to create wildlife-rich habitats, and we can all be proud that we are setting an example for other local authorities to follow, benefitting wildlife around the country."
Council biodiversity officer Stephanie Peay added: "With Butterfly-Friendly Cities we can all help butterflies and moths if we just give them the varied living spaces they need. It could be long grass in a council park, flowering ivy on an old wall, or nectar-rich flowers in a window-box.
"Gardens, open spaces, farmland or unmanaged corners can become places rich in plants and insects, if we don’t get fixed on neat uniformity.
‘’Whenever we take time to look more closely we can enjoy the incredible world of insects and other minibeasts around us."
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count this year was the most successful ever, with a record 125,000 people taking part across the UK and recording 1.7 million butterflies and moths.
The sunniest spring and hottest summer ever recorded in the UK provided perfect conditions and helped boost numbers after last year’s wet weather led to dismal results. However, the average number of butterflies and moths per count this year was still only 10.3 – slightly under the usual figure.
The charity says this shows the result of decades of habitat loss, pesticides and pollution which means populations are less able to bounce back from unusual weather which is expected to increase in frequency because of climate change.
Butterfly Conservation Campaigns Officer Pip Gray said: "We are absolutely delighted that Lancaster City Council is leading the way for local authorities across the UK and around the world.
‘’Residents around the UK are doing their bit for butterflies and moths, and councils have a huge opportunity to help us tackle the Butterfly Emergency that the UK is now in.
“If every council let roadside verges grow a bit longer, created Wild Spaces in parks and asked housing developers to make more space for wildlife, we could help turn around the fortunes of beautiful butterflies and magical moths that bring us so much joy and form part of a healthy natural environment for both people and nature."
Anyone interested in working with the council to make Lancaster a Butterfly-Friendly City is invited to contact regenerationsupport@lancaster.gov.uk
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