So how did it go?

We feel that although solid progress is being made, there is still a lot of work to do before we can say that each of the carefully thought out things which we ask for in this petition has been achieved and thus truly effective action is being taken to save our starlings. The final City Downland Estate Plan will be the proof of the pudding. The statement that the committee read to us is here: 

Thank you for your petition on such an important matter.

We have already phased out pesticide use on all public land looked after by our environment and housing teams, except for high-risk invasive species with no effective alternative.  We have also worked with the you to find locations for 100 starling boxes.

However, we are keen to increase the biodiversity of plants and wildlife in our city, as we know we need to support our declining insect population.

Lots of this work is underway:

We’ve introduced a new wildflower meadow and 37,000 new plants in the city centre.

Near the marina we have created a new wildlife site that will become home to butterflies, bees, birds and other small insects to help to enrich biodiversity.

We have installed a number of bee banks, and our flower seeding work along the Lewes Road and elsewhere in the city is both popular with residents and great for biodiversity.

Through our City Downland Estate Plan we will be promoting biodiversity, restored rich chalk grassland landscapes and natural farming.

We are continuing to look at what other measures we may be able to take.