FUNDING of £100,000 will help train 120 new beekeepers to help save a species facing extinction.

Offshoots Permaculture Project, based in the walled garden at Towneley Park, Burnley, will use the money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the John Paul Getty Foundation to run free training workshops for up to 120 people.

People who complete the courses will be given hives containing the British black bee, which is the UK’s only indigenous bee species and on the brink of extinction.

Phil Dewhurst, from Offshoots, said: “The programme is called Bees in the Borough. It’s about saving and reintroducing British black bees, which are on the point of extinction.

“What we intend to do is provide free training workshops for up to 120 people.

"They will range from six-day to one-day courses, which provide a quick snapshot.

“The people who will be recruited will have completed the course and will live within the moorland fringe. They will be given a nucleus hive of bees, containing a queen and workers.”

The British black bee has become endangered as a result of beekeepers opting to import Italian and Balkan bees.

The other species are more popular because the British black bee has a reputation for being more aggressive and does not produce as much honey.

Offshoots is managed by Groundwork Pennine Lancashire.