Pickering's Bee-themed Earth Day was 'buzzing'  with plans to make it an annual event.

The event, held on Saturday, included a range of bee-related activities at Beck Isle Museum's “Bee Amazing” Event, a repair café  at the Black Swan Yard, and an Ecofair at The Memorial Hall.

In addition, there was a Bee Talk and honey tasting at Pickering library, and activities run by children’s authors Sacha and Thomas Webborn at Pickering Book Tree.

Paul Norrington, from Pickering Environment Group said the town had 'really showed up' for the Bee-themed Earth Day.

He said: "Over 200 people attended the Ecofair, which was extremely popular with families.

"Events at Beck Isle Museum, Pickering Book Tree and Pickering Library were also very well attended.

“ Bees and other pollinators are in serious decline. We could be in serious trouble too, not least because up to a third of all our food relies on pollination from bees and other insects. There’s a great opportunity to turn all this positive energy into action.”

"The Ecofair featured around t20  stalls in total. The RSPB was also on hand to supervise the making of bee homes from upcycled mugs and bamboo.

"Other stalls providing inspiration on what we can all do help other wildlife thrive in our neighbourhoods, including Pickering Swifts, Pickering Hedgehog Rescue, The British Dragonfly Society and Ryedale Naturalists. Anyone wanting to succeed with planting wildflowers was able to chat to Heritage Wild Flowers, The North of England's Leading Wild Flower Specialist.

"We collected nearly 194 pledges to help bees - let your lawn grow, sow wildflower seeds, provide bumblebee nest sites, learn more about bees.

" We raised £132 for Bumblebee Conservation Trust Over 100 packets of wildflower seeds given out Repair café was most successful ever, and repairers even managed to build a bug hotel from scratch, which will be donated locally."

Carrie Brackstone, Operations Manager for Pickering Town Community Interest Company said: "We are certainly planning to make it an annual event The day was a great success despite Mother Nature being against us.

"All of the venues involved had a great turn-out and we had over 80 entries for the chocolate bee competition. (Winner to be announce) It was particularly lovely to see so many families come into the eco-fair to spend time learning about how they can make small changes to improve the future of the Earth – particularly, of course, for the bees."