DORSET'S newest luxury accommodation is now open for business – but only to those with exoskeletons and antennas.

The 'insect hotel' at Tricuro Parkstone Connect Centre was unveiled by the Mayor, Cllr Marion Le Poidevin at an official ceremony.

Made by day care service users and staff known as the Green Team, the structure will encourage bees and pollinators to visit the centre’s gardens.

Green Team facilitator Laura Cousins said: “We were delighted to have the Mayor visit us and see what we do.

"The Green Team activities are specifically designed to help service users understand environmental issues, foster their social skills and make art to improve the physical spaces around the centre - as well as raising much-needed funds for local charities.

"The sense of achievement and motivation generated by the insect hotel project and the Mayor's visit have had a very positive impact on the team members."

The hotel was made using discarded wooden pallets, old flower pots, bamboo sticks, garden detritus, wool carpet, broken tiles, waste twigs and straw, to attract a wide range of species.

Also in attendance at the ceremony were local author Marylyn Cropley, who presented the Mayor with a copy of her children’s book on climate change, Planet Earth Needs Our Help, and Martin Price, a trustee of local recycling charity Ideas.

Staff at the centre are now encouraging families to build their own 'bee hotels'.

A tutorial video can be found on the centre website or by visiting: www.friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/make-a-bee-house.

Details of how to construct a “bee hotel” can be found at https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/make-a-bee-house. 2. Britain’s bees are in trouble. 35 UK bee species are under threat of extinction, and all species face serious threats. As a result, Friends of the Earth launched its Bee Cause campaign in 2012. This aims to highlight the decline in bees' diversity and abundance, which would have a serious impact on how our natural world functions, including food production. Bees pollinate much of the food that makes our diets healthy and tasty – from the apple in our lunchbox, to the tomatoes on our pizza. 3. The Green Team project at Tricuro Parkstone Connect was born out of Laura Cousins' participation in a wider local movement to recycle waste as a means of raising funds for charity. Find out more about Ideas2Action and their Win on Waste project: http://www.ideas2action.org.uk/ 4. Local charities who benefit from the Green Team’s recycling project include: The Priest House Museum, Poole Methodists, Routes To Roots, The Dorset Scrapstore, Ideas2Action. 5. Marylyn Cropley's book, “Planet Earth Needs Our Help” is a self-published, not-for-profit children’s book. It provides an easily understood and non-threatening introduction to climate change issues for 4 – 11 year-olds.