Wealth at the roadside

Managing Cumbria's wildlife-rich highway verges so that they are safe for road users as well as havens for animals and flowers was up for debate at today's meeting of Cumbria County Council's Community Consultative Forum (Monday, 7th April at 10.15am at Kendal Town Hall). 

Judy Palmer, the county council's ecologist, and John Robinson, county roads engineer, outlined the issues involved in managing verges on the county's roads. Greig Crawford, of Mouchel Amey JV, which manages trunk roads in Cumbria on behalf of the Highways Agency, talked about trunk road and motorway verges. There was also a presentation by Bryan Jeffrey and Margaret Gregory about the work of the North East Carlisle Verges Action Group, which aims to maximise the economic benefits of verges through a walks promotional leaflet linked to local businesses. 

Councillor Pauline Halfpenny, chair of the forum, said: 

"Verge maintenance is a combination of safety and environmental measures and Cumbria County Council times the cutting of the verges to take account of the diverse ecology found there. They are alive with flowers and wildlife and the county council makes every effort to ensure that our cutting programme takes this into account. The County Council has to balance cutting the verges for the safety of all road users with protecting the wealth of wildlife and I think they are well on the way to doing that. The feedback we had after the meeting was very positive and I hope that as a result, more members of the public will come forward with a view to setting up verge actions groups in other parts of the county. 

The forum, which consists of county councillors and co-opted members, is open to the public, who can take part in a questions session at the end of the morning. Recommendations from the forum go back to county council policy makers. 

Judy Palmer said: 

"Our verges are a very important wildlife resource and our best verges are of exceptional value for their flower-rich habitat, rarely found these days in the adjacent farmland. Cumbria County Council policy aims to maintain this resource as one of its contributions to the Cumbria Biodiversity Action Plan, while also achieving management for safety. 

Many people enjoy the flower-richness of our verges and they provide an important tourist resource in many parts of Cumbria, as a colourful summer show much enjoyed by car drivers and walkers."