Bees and other vital pollinators, and insect life generally, are under greater pressure than ever, due to loss of habitat from agricultural intensification and urbanisation.

Road verges and the green spaces in and around towns can provide a vital lifeline – but only if the flowers and other elements insects need for feeding and breeding are present.

At the same time, budget pressures are causing councils to review their cutting regimes; but simply reducing the frequency of cut across the board seems to satisfy no one.

Wycombe Friends of the Earth and others believe there is a real opportunity here to bring together the objectives of nature conservation and cost-efficiency, through a more thoughtful and tailored approach.

Some areas, for reasons of highway safety or recreation or pedestrian access, will still need regular cutting. But most do not, and would be better managed through a regime of a single autumn cut with the cuttings removed, rather than infrequent but still regular cuts leaving the cuttings in situ. Even with the task of removing the cuttings, the workload across the season will be reduced, with consequent cost savings.

Some members of the public will no doubt protest about the “untidiness” of what will result. Grass left to grow for a few weeks, then cut and left, in a cycle of increasing nutrients, is a mess; but proper management in the way described will gradually allow flowering plants to survive and increase.

We defy anyone to deny that a wildflower meadow is more uplifting and beautiful than a green desert of close-mown grass!

We call on councils and all other landowners who manage green spaces to open their minds to this new philosophy. The benefits and opportunities are set out in more depth in social enterprise Chiltern Rangers’ web article www.chilternrangers.co.uk/to-mow-or-not-to-mow — Mike Chadwick, Coordinator, Wycombe Friends of the Earth