WHY is the council spending
millions of pounds on a longterm
contract with a large civil
engineering company to mow
hedges and verges throughout
the year?

 

This practice is destroying precious
wildlife habitat by reducing
the number and varieties of
wildflowers, insects, birds and
small mammals, whilst costing
taxpayers millions, which could
be put to better use on services
for the disabled, mentally ill,
children, the elderly, etc.
 

All are essential services in a
civilised caring society and yet
they are being cut and cut again.
 

To those who cry ‘health and
safety’ I would point out that
often the safety signs are left
obscured by vegetation, which
the large mowers cannot reach –
so clear the signs by hand or
smaller machines and leave the
rest to nature.
 

A natural hedgerow and verge
in bloom is one of the most beautiful
sights in our countryside.
 

In these times of tight financial
constraints our priorities should
surely be funding care and education
before wasting money on
turning our verges into barren
mono-cultures.
 

Some more enlightened counties
have adopted the win-win
strategy of marketing themselves
to tourists on the basis of
their natural hedgerows.
 

It’s time Hampshire caught up
by re-examining its fiscal priorities.
 

Julie Davis,
Beechwood,
Amport