Overgrown verges

[cmaguire]

£90 is peanuts.
And bureaucracy doesn't come cheap. The name of the game now is making sure you can't be blamed for anything. With that in mind (and the fact that most individuals other priorities revolve around money and sex) it isn't difficult to believe anything.

Contact the local media. If they are interested maybe they can shame the council into doing something as they hate negative publicity. Or just put up with it until someone dies or is seriously injured. Or get your strimmer/brushcutter out.

[Fastpedeller]

If you cut the vegetation back that would possibly be frowned upon - If you start marking holes in the road (a public service - so that others can see them) they will prosecute.

[Willy Nilly]

The reasons for not cutting verges are two fold. Firstly it's obviously cheaper to not cut them or cut them less often or only cut some bits of them. Secondly, verges are quite a large and potentially undisturbed part of the countryside that all links up so wild life can move about and thrive, that's why they're trimming of was reduced in the first place and also the reason farmer are only allowed to cut hedges between September and the end of Feb.

No matter the state of the verges, if you cannot stop on your side of the road in the distance you can see to be clear, you are going too fast for the conditions.

[cmaguire]

Willy Nilly said:

The reasons for not cutting verges are two fold. Firstly it's obviously cheaper to not cut them or cut them less often or only cut some bits of them. Secondly, verges are quite a large and potentially undisturbed part of the countryside that all links up so wild life can move about and thrive, that's why they're trimming of was reduced in the first place and also the reason farmer are only allowed to cut hedges between September and the end of Feb.

No matter the state of the verges, if you cannot stop on your side of the road in the distance you can see to be clear, you are going too fast for the conditions.

Do you work for the council?
Strange how they worry about the wildlife more when they want to save money.
Let's all drive around at 30 mph. Oh, hang on..
Driverless cars...there's a solution.

[cmaguire]

Or just trim the verges like they should do.
How about that?

[Willy Nilly]

cmaguire said:

Willy Nilly said:

The reasons for not cutting verges are two fold. Firstly it's obviously cheaper to not cut them or cut them less often or only cut some bits of them. Secondly, verges are quite a large and potentially undisturbed part of the countryside that all links up so wild life can move about and thrive, that's why they're trimming of was reduced in the first place and also the reason farmer are only allowed to cut hedges between September and the end of Feb.

No matter the state of the verges, if you cannot stop on your side of the road in the distance you can see to be clear, you are going too fast for the conditions.

Do you work for the council?
Strange how they worry about the wildlife more when they want to save money.
Let's all drive around at 30 mph. Oh, hang on..
Driverless cars...there's a solution.

No, I don't work for the council, but know people the subbied for them trimming verges. It used to be a good earner, but the wildlife thing was the reason they were trimmed less in the first place. I work on a farm and there are countless environmental schemes and reasons to do things and not do things at various times of the year. We are not allowed to trim hedges at this time of the year because of nesting birds.

Yes, one can drive faster when there is a clear view when the verges are trimmed within an inch of their lives, but I've never felt it is much of an issue. They are cut near intersections.

Also remember that it's been very wet this summer and even if they were being cut, the plants growing by the roadside have been growing very fast.

[Jarcy]

irocfan said:

it is an interesting one - I've just come back from driving through both Austria a Germany and the thing they both have in common is (in the main) excellent roads and verges... Belgian roads on the other hand were about as poor as ours. Truth be told Austria and Germany were a lot cleaner and better maintained as a whole than the UK

Edited by irocfan on Monday 11th July 21:34

I was only observing the other day, that our whole country needs a blooming good haircut!

[The Surveyor]

mattyc69 said:

Just a bit of background,

I live in a small village in Norfolk population is about 1000, we have no shops just a pub.

The nearest town is about 3 miles away, we only have 2 routes in and out of the village to the town, these are both only wide enough for one car, not too much of an issue everyone knows the drill plenty of places to pull over to let someone coming other way past.

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

Do you have a Parish Council or Village Group who you could raise the concerns with? Try and tackle it as a combined village community rather than as an individual and it may have more weight. If the Council still refuse, seek their permission to cut it yourselves and collectively bung the local farmers lad some cash to cut the verges. Village Hall fundraiser etc,

[TooMany2cvs]

The Surveyor said:

Do you have a Parish Council or Village Group who you could raise the concerns with? Try and tackle it as a combined village community rather than as an individual and it may have more weight. If the Council still refuse, seek their permission to cut it yourselves and collectively bung the local farmers lad some cash to cut the verges. Village Hall fundraiser etc,

Our local parish council - and quite a few others round here - are delegated this basic local-level road maintenance under a "lengthsman" scheme. Somebody in the village is paid to run around the parish regularly, checking on roads/drains/verges/signs, do basic maintenance including strimming, and escalate anything more substantial to the county. The council pass a (tiny) annual budget the parish's way to cover this.

But... if the OP's talking about a more heavily trafficked road, then does it have a B number? The lengthsman can only do C- and U- roads. Anything B or above is firmly county council territory.

[Morningside]

I know exactly what you mean. Here over the border in Suffolk it is just as bad. A couple of villages you cannot even see the 30 mph limit as the grass is so high.

Also trying to exit out of a couple of junctions is downright bloody dangerous!!

[eatcustard]

bulk weed killer

[Willy Nilly]

I'm looking forward to the OP getting the LA to cut the verges and his next post complaining about getting stuck behind a tractor doing 1km/hr with a hedgecutter mowing them. Mowing verges and trimming road side hedges is a massive pain the arse.

[sparkythecat]

Fastpedeller said:

If you start marking holes in the road (a public service - so that others can see them) they will prosecute.

Who will prosecute you, and for what offence?
Have you any evidence of any such prosecution having taken place?

I'm asking not for the sake of argument, but because marking holes is something I've considered doing myself.

[V8 Fettler]

There is an imbalance between the tax-take from road users and the expenditure on roads

[Johnnytheboy]

There's usually a letter in the local rag around here (Dorset) at this time from some woman bemoaning the damage to the lovely wild flowers due the the council's butchery of the verges.

I'm not sure it's the same woman every year, or if they are just all of a greeny/hippie type, but they invariably end by saying that instead of cutting down the lovely wild flowers on safety grounds, perhaps drivers should just slow down instead.

If I can be bothered, I write back and say that it's all very well me driving slowly to mitigate the lack of verge cutting in narrow country lanes, but I can't guarantee that the person coming the other way will do the same.

[Boydie88]

It's pretty dreadful around rural North Herts too.

Fixmystreet.com gets a good load of traffic from me in the Summer months with the A505 at Royston taking a lot of stick.

[TooMany2cvs]

V8 Fettler said:

There is an imbalance between the tax-take from road users and the expenditure on roads

Umm, you do know that "tax-take from road users" isn't even in any way intended to be related to expenditure on roads, right?

It's very simple. The government get a certain amount of money from the country. They spend a certain amount of money on the country. In an ideal world, the two are about the same. If they get more than they spend, they can pay back some debt. If they spend more than they get, they need to borrow more.

The money they get comes from tax. ALL tax. If less tax comes from one area, more tax has to come from another. Or less has to be spent.

Over the last few years, a lot more has been spent than comes in. So the government have tried spending less. People whinge a lot. If they tried taxing more, people would still whinge.

[V8 Fettler]

TooMany2cvs said:

V8 Fettler said:

There is an imbalance between the tax-take from road users and the expenditure on roads

Umm, you do know that "tax-take from road users" isn't even in any way intended to be related to expenditure on roads, right?

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Do you not think that needs to be changed?

[TooMany2cvs]

V8 Fettler said:

TooMany2cvs said:

V8 Fettler said:

There is an imbalance between the tax-take from road users and the expenditure on roads

Umm, you do know that "tax-take from road users" isn't even in any way intended to be related to expenditure on roads, right?

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Do you not think that needs to be changed?

I repeat...

TooMany2cvs said:

If less tax comes from one area, more tax has to come from another.

Take £20-odd billion less from road use (or spend £20-odd billion more on roads, or any combo in between), and that shortfall in the general budget has to be made up. So which other taxes would you increase by £20-odd billion, or where would you spend £20-odd billion less?

Where it comes, and where it goes - 2013 figures.

[V8 Fettler]

TooMany2cvs said:

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I repeat...

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Thank you for repeating yourself. Doesn't the taxpayer pay ministers, civil servants and public sector managers large amounts of money each year to take care of the detailed allocation of budgets?

What is lacking is an organisation to effectively represent road users.