BACK TO ITS BAD OLD WAYS - COUNCIL BLITZES WILDFLOWERS WITH CHEMICAL SPRAY

 

Short-back-and sides - but definitely no wildflowers - for this  strimmed and sprayed central section of  the A46 road

JUST days after unveiling an initiative to encourage colourful wildflowers to flourish on roadside verges, it has emerged that North East Lincolnshire Council has still been destroying  many of them.

Over  four consecutive weekends, while traffic was quiet, flower-killing chemical sprays were being used as part of a "deep clean" of "weeds" on two of the main roads in Grimsby - the A180 Westgate and the A46 between Morrison’s and the A18.

During the project, litter pickers also gathered rubbish, while road sweepers swept up other  debris, gully cleaners extracted sludge from the drains and vegetation was strimmed.

Even more of the borough's wildflower will soon be at risk  because the next location identified for a "deep clean" is a stretch of the A46 between Morrisons and Peaks Parkway.

There is also a concern about chemicals - along with those from farmland - leaking into the aquifers that provide the area's drinking waters which is why Anglian Water is having to build a new treatment plant in Grimsby (https://bit.ly/2MRfBk8).

The council's portfolio holder with responsibility for safeguarding and enhancing the environment - including encouraging wildflowers - is Cllr Stewart Swinburn.

Says he: "The A180 and A46 are two of the key gateway roads for the area, so it’s important that we carry out this type of maintenance."

                                                        

With imagination, this is how our roadside verges could look

The Grimsby News says: Will the council never learn? Hidden among the sprayed 'weeds' are likely to have been orchids, cornflowers, cowslips, harebells  and other jewels. Not only that but, by their destruction, precious butterflies, butterflies and other beneficial insects will also have been put in peril. Removal of litter is commendable, as is strimming where high-growing cow parsley poses a threat to highway safety, but the portfolio holder needs to be more imaginative in his approach. As he says, the A180 and A46 are "key gateway" roads. All the more reason, then, for adding a splash of wildflower reds, whites, blues and yellows. He should take a car ride along the approach routes to  the seaside resorts of Norfolk where its county highways department  has shown infinitely more creativity.