I am and, I suspect, many other people are at a loss to understand the council’s policy on verge cutting.

According to what I have read, the verges have been kept long to promote wildflowers and wildlife.

For a wildflower meadow to work it takes the following; poor bare soil without the competition of grasses. The relief road into Weymouth being an example. Wildflowers to be sown as per any other crop and given time for the flowers to grow, again it has taken years for the verges into Weymouth to mature into the floral site we saw this year with the cowslips.

Yes I understand the verges were kept long to provide a habitat for small creatures but the council, in doing this, have succeeded, in many cases, in occluding the vision of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, not to mention the wildlife they are trying to protect.

As I understand it, the council has a remit to provide a safe environment for wildlife which hasn’t happened on Middle Farm Way, Poundbury, where a number of animals have lost their lives as in other years when the verges were trimmed.

Now we see that the same verges have been cut to within an inch of their lives, whereas the Centenary Field is left with long grass and grass cuttings which are probably the bane of parents’ lives.

If, as the council states, the policy re. the verges is to help in climate change, by my understanding this isn’t happening. 

Yes, money, time and pollution is cut by not mowing but provision for some of our wildlife and pollinators has not been provided. Very few, if any, wildflowers have been growing, just grass, docks, etc and a profusion of rubbish i.e. ragwort.

HEATHER ROBINSON

Bridport Road, Dorchester