A resident in the Whitehaven area has become concerned after grass was cut on a recreation field damaging a rare species of flower. 

The recreation field in Lowca was cut recently by Copeland Borough Council damaging the rare bee orchid. 

A man, who did not wish to be named, raised concern over this and asked for extra care to be taken in future. 

We spoke to him to find out his thoughts. 

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He said: "You aren't meant to pick or cut orchids down when they are flowering, knowingly anyways. I'm not blaming anyone that was involved because they probably didn't know that they were there.

"The thing is with Bee Orchids when you look at them from behind they're very small and if you look at them from behind all you can see is a green stalk.

"So my issue was to make the council aware that there are orchids growing in the field there and they should wait until they've stopped flowering and the flowers are set for them to cut the grass."

The man explained that he has also seen the Bee Orchids growing in other parts of the village, including in his garden. 

He hopes that the attention brought to the issue will stop this from happening again in future. 

A spokesperson for Copeland Borough Council responded by saying: "We have a long-standing contract with the parish council to maintain this piece of land.

"This area is part of our regular scheduled work and is cut every three weeks.

"We have never been notified, as the contractor, of the presence of Bee orchids and therefore have maintained our regular schedule.

"We are liaising with Natural England to understand how to maintain the area going forward now that we have been made aware of the protected wildflowers.

"Our Parks and Open Spaces team is also currently working with the parish council to create a wildflower meadow in the area for residents to enjoy, and to enhance the environment."