Leave us the birds and the bees – plea to council

PEOPLE in parts of South Wales have asked their council not to cut grass on roadsides and roundabouts – after wildlife settled within it in during the coronavirus lockdown.

Caerphilly County Council resumed grass cutting on Monday around roundabouts and the county’s major roads, and said it plans to resume as much of its normal schedule as possible over the coming weeks.

However, Caerphilly residents have taken to social media to voice their concerns over the wildlife that has settled in the past month since lockdown began on March 24.

Commenting on the council’s Facebook post Jessica Alfonso Robledo said: “Please don’t cut the grass. I’m enjoying watching the birds looking for insects opposite my house and we’ve seen so many bees this year.”

Emma Jones said: “I was appreciating the wild flowers and insect habitats left undisturbed.

“Can you just cut where it would cause a hazard?

“Do we have to return to the needless cutting?”

Residents also took to Twitter to voice their concerns.

Lee Dingain asked why the service was being resumed.

He said: “Apart from where visibility is an issue, verges should be managed for biodiversity and not trimmed to within an inch of life.”

Laura Pinney tweeted: “I hope @ CaerphillyCBC takes note of this and is prepared to re-think its imminent mowing plans. Why can’t we have a compromise of 1-2m at the edge of roundabouts mown, for visibility, and the middle left to grow??”

And twitter user @JPCymro said: “You only need to stick to Roundabouts/Corners of junctions you do not need to at all destroy all patches of flourishing green areas which has had an incredible positive impact on wildlife/ pollinators!”

Nigel George, the council’s cabinet member for environment and neighbourhood services, said: “We are able to resume a reduced version of this service whilst complying with the social distancing measures imposed by Welsh Government.

“The lovely weather we have been experiencing over recent weeks has seen the grass grow rapidly and we need to tackle this ahead of the lockdown measure review, this is particularly important on roundabouts and speed roads to ensure public safety.”