Actually, I have. See here :
http://www.plantlife.org.uk/roadvergecampaign
This is what the road looks like at the end of the drive, at the moment.
Where there should be billowing clouds of cow parsley, beautiful and dreamy in the month of May, instead we have ZIPPO. To say I am angry and upset would be the understatement of the decade. I am raging. I have emailed East Lothian Council, Highways, and sent them photos. I haven't received a reply yet, but, like my mother before me back in the 1960s when Hampshire County Council repeatedly got it in the neck, I am on a mission.
The decision to cut the verges at this time of year is governed, I understand, by the fact that this is a bit of downtime for the farmers and their workers. They are waiting for stuff to grow in the fields, so having been awarded the cutting contracts by the council, they get their big machines out and destroy the countryside. They are supposed to cut to a depth of one metre and at an angle. If you log on to the Plantlife website you can read how the cut should be done, and more importantly, when. If you are fond of my blog, please do this for me and 'sign' their petition (well, not for me but for the precious plants which give food and cover for our bees, butterflies, birds, insects and wild animals, and bring beauty to our environment). It can only do good. To cut at this time of the year is madness. They are cutting down flowers and grasses while they are in blooming, or about to flower, and so the plants cannot set their seed. Chances are they won't be there next year. We don't need a neat and tidy countryside. (Incidentally I do, of course, acknowledge that the sight lines at junctions and on bends, etc., need to be cut, for road safety).
This is what we should be looking at in May.
I am sure I will have more to say on the subject in due course!
http://www.plantlife.org.uk/roadvergecampaign
This is what the road looks like at the end of the drive, at the moment.
The decision to cut the verges at this time of year is governed, I understand, by the fact that this is a bit of downtime for the farmers and their workers. They are waiting for stuff to grow in the fields, so having been awarded the cutting contracts by the council, they get their big machines out and destroy the countryside. They are supposed to cut to a depth of one metre and at an angle. If you log on to the Plantlife website you can read how the cut should be done, and more importantly, when. If you are fond of my blog, please do this for me and 'sign' their petition (well, not for me but for the precious plants which give food and cover for our bees, butterflies, birds, insects and wild animals, and bring beauty to our environment). It can only do good. To cut at this time of the year is madness. They are cutting down flowers and grasses while they are in blooming, or about to flower, and so the plants cannot set their seed. Chances are they won't be there next year. We don't need a neat and tidy countryside. (Incidentally I do, of course, acknowledge that the sight lines at junctions and on bends, etc., need to be cut, for road safety).
This is what we should be looking at in May.
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