Shropshire Council take “Alan’s Challenge” to save road verge flowers

This summer the nation’s favourite gardener wants to help save Britain’s wild flowers that are under attack.  As part of Plantlife’s Flowers on the Edge campaign, he is throwing down the “Alan Challenge” to councils across Britain, and Plantlife are delighted to announce that Shropshire Council are one of the first to take up “The Alan Challenge”, named after Alan Titchmarsh.

Claire Wild, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport, said

“We’re pleased support the Plantlife Road Verge Campaign, and we have started the process of examining and improving our management of our verges, using Plantlife’s guidelines.  It is a challenging task and there is still a lot that we need to do to achieve this.  One thing is that we really need is to gather more information about where the best verges are in the county, so we can prioritise our efforts in these areas.  To help us with this, we have set up an online recording form where members of the public can report wildflower-rich verges that they know of. Shropshire is well-known for its natural environment and biodiversity and we want to do our best to maintain and improve this reputation.”

Wayside flowers bring so much pleasure, colouring our towns and countryside and brightening up our daily commute.  They are also incredibly important.  With about three times more grassland on our road verges than there is left in the countryside, many road verges are the last refuge for local wild flowers – and the wildlife which depend on them. Yet, road verges haven’t been able to blossom: flowers are being mown down in full bloom, sprayed off with poisons, or smothered with cuttings.   Over time, only plants such as thistles, docks and coarse grasses survive.

Alan Titchmarsh comments:

“It’s an important and hugely worthwhile campaign and I am delighted that Shropshire Council has signed up to take my challenge.  The road verges near where I live have some really gorgeous displays of wild flowers, but they are sometimes being mown down in their prime.   This deprives wildlife of food, us of their beauty and, in the end, unwittingly contributes to the eventual loss of the flowers altogether.  We have lost 98% of our wildflower meadows; let’s look after the slivers that are left.”

Plantlife’s Andy Byfield believes that:

“With the right management as a matter of course, our road verges could be invaluable havens for wildlife; these ribbons of flowers would bring colour to the countryside, and would provide flyways for essential pollinators such as bees.   Yet all too often members of the public tell us of verges cut at their flowering best.  We understand the many pressures facing councils, but urge them to sign up and take on our guidelines or at the very least work with us to reassess their current procedures: even the smallest tweaks to what they are currently doing could make a huge difference and save them money.”

You can get involved and help by reporting any verges you think are particularly valuable for wildflowers by clicking here.

Further information

Councils can take up “The Alan Challenge” and manage out-of-town road verges following these three simple guidelines from Plantlife:

• Cut the full width of the verge once a year, no earlier than the end of August and no later than the end of March.  Where a road passes through woodland, cutting should be carried out no later than the end of January.
• Between the beginning of April and the end of August, do not cut the verge except to maintain sight-lines or for other road-safety purposes.
• Gather and remove cuttings wherever possible.

Plantlife are also urging members of the public to sign up to “Alan’s Army”.

• Add your name to our petition calling for better road verge management.
• Download your road verge warrior tool kit so you are armed with all the information and advice on what you can do to help.
• Send in your before and after pictures of road verges in bloom and after they have been cut to www.plantlife.org.uk/roadvergecampaign . To find out more about the campaign, contact: Justina Simpson on 07584 995929 or email justina.simpson@plantlife.org.uk.