This is what you have been writing to us about this week.

I note with interest your article on the cutting of long grass on road verges.

I would suggest that, although there is an obvious need to maintain clear lines of sight, it is a huge exaggeration to claim that long grass or weed growth in road verges presents a real danger to cyclists or other road users under any normal circumstances; it certainly does not present anywhere near as much danger to road users as badly parked cars or, especially, vans, which frequently prevent drivers, cyclists, and other road users seeing approaching traffic at all when entering a busy road.

Britain’s thousands of miles of road verges cover a huge area of land; managed correctly, they have the potential to contribute massively to biodiversity.

Since the 1930s, Britain has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows, and with them the bees and other pollinators that form a vital part of our ecosystem, as well as helping to pollinate the food crops we all depend on.

Sensitive management of our road verges could contribute significantly to reversing that decline, and those verges would themselves form so-called bee corridors, allowing pollinators to travel freely from one location to another.

Such sensitive management should include frequent cutting of areas close to road junctions and close to the paved road if, and only if, the grass growth would impinge on lines of sight or obscure the edge of the carriageway, but areas further from the carriageway itself should be cut only once or, at most, twice a year, after any wildflowers present have set seed, thus allowing the regeneration of a natural meadow ecosystem.

In some places, local authorities have aided this process by spreading wildflower seed in otherwise barren areas.

Crucially, the grass cuttings should be removed and composted, to provide natural and peat-free compost for the use of the people of Buckinghamshire, not be left to rot and further increase the fertility of the road verges, promoting lush growth with a limited range of species, rather than a diverse, species rich ecosystem.

Steve Morton, Wycombe Friends of the Earth

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